Real Madrid 2022-23: has it been a good season for Los Blancos?
Carlo Ancelotti's side have added three trophies this term, but missed out on the two biggest prizes...
It was May 2018 and Real Madrid were getting ready to celebrate their third European Cup in a row in front of thousands of fans in the city centre. Before the team bus arrived, I spoke to members of the club’s media department and congratulated them for yet another continental crown. “But what about LaLiga?” I asked. That season, Madrid had finished 17 points behind Barcelona in third place. “We’re more into the Champions League,” one of the women working in the press team replied with a smile. And given Real’s record at that time, it was hard to argue with that.
While Madrid won their 13th European Cup in 2017-18, Barcelona claimed a domestic double of LaLiga and Copa del Rey titles. But their achievements had been eclipsed by Real’s ‘three-peat’ in the Champions League. Los Blancos had saved their season by beating Liverpool in Kyiv and achieved something spectacular in the process. There is a problem with that, though: not even Real Madrid can win it every year.
This season, Real’s run in the competition had seen similar views aired online. Barcelona have won LaLiga again and Madrid are adrift. Carlo Ancelotti’s side could even finish third. That may not matter much, but Wednesday night’s Champions League semi-final second leg loss to Manchester City – and the nature of the defeat – probably paints the club’s season in a slightly different light.
In 2022-23, Madrid have added the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup to their palmarès, along with the Copa del Rey. Three trophies out of a possible six. Not bad at all, but the first two of those were available because of last season’s success: a sort of bonus for winning the Champions League. Expected victories, too: Ancelotti’s side won the Super Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt and the Club World Cup by beating Saudi side Al-Hilal.
Winning the Copa del Rey was more important. Madrid had not won Spain’s domestic cup competition since 2013-14, also under Ancelotti, and Los Blancos made it to the final by beating Barcelona 4-0 on a memorable night at Camp Nou after losing the first leg of their semi-final 1-0 at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Three titles in total, but only one out of three at the end of the campaign. And the least important of the three. Plus a Champions League semi-final, in which Madrid were blown away by a Manchester City side closing in on a historic treble, and a fairly disappointing defence of their LaLiga crown. So has it been a good season for Real Madrid?
In the Champions League, it has been. Not even Real Madrid, 14-time winners, can claim the trophy every single season. Reaching the last four is a satisfactory outcome for Los Blancos, especially given their success in the competition in recent times: 11 semi-finals out of 13 since 2011. Does the nature of Wednesday’s loss take some shine off that? Perhaps. Ancelotti’s side were well beaten in Manchester; it was 4-0 at the Etihad, but it could easily have been six or seven.
In LaLiga, Madrid’s campaign has been more disappointing. With four fixtures left to play, Los Blancos are 14 points behind Barcelona, with Xavi’s side having wrapped up the title last weekend. If Ancelotti’s side win their remaining games, they will finish with 83 points. Last season, that would have been enough to win it. In 2021-22, Real did win it, with 86 points. Barça were second with 73, but could accumulate 97 this time around.
Ancelotti is the only coach to have won each of Europe’s top five leagues. That, of course, is an amazing achievement, yet those are the only five he has won in a career spanning more than two decades at some of the continent’s biggest and most powerful clubs. At Real Madrid, he has one in four and his highest points total ever is the 92 claimed by Los Blancos in 2014-15. They came second that season.
It is never all about the coach. There are flaws in Real Madrid’s squad: they need a striker to complement and as back-up to Karim Benzema, plus new full-backs on each side and another midfielder. Los Blancos lack strength in depth and with so many games this season, they have been stretched.
Nevertheless, the current campaign has followed a similar pattern to Ancelotti’s second season in his first spell, when Real Madrid were unable to back up the success of his debut campaign. Back then, it cost him his job. This time, he might stay, although if he does it may be because of the lack of a suitable replacement on the market. And because his relationship with the club, including president Florentino Pérez, is very good.
“I did meet with Florentino Perez. I can’t tell you what we said, but he spoke to the squad in the locker room. The future is very clear, this defeat will help us to be better next season,” Ancelotti said after the defeat against City.
“We are Real Madrid and we will try again. It has been a good season so far, defeats happen in sport.”
Ancelotti, who is wanted by Brazil this summer, recently praised Milwaukee Bucks basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpu after the Greek responded to a journalist’s question on whether their season had been a ‘failure’ following a series loss to Miami Heat by saying that losing is part of sport.
“Oh my god. You asked me the same question last year,” Giannis said. “Do you get a promotion every year at your job? So every year you work is a failure? Yes or no? No. Every year you work, you work towards something, towards a goal. It’s not a failure; it’s steps to success. There’s always steps to it. Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships. The other nine years was a failure? That’s what you’re telling me? It’s a wrong question; there’s no failure in sports.”
Time will tell whether that view is shared by Ancelotti’s employers. At Real Madrid, only winning the big prizes is sufficient traditionally and sometimes it is not even enough: this is the club that sacked Jupp Heynckes after he led them to the Champions League in 1997-98; that removed Vicente del Bosque following two European Cups and then a league title in 2002-03; that twice dispensed with Fabio Capello despite LaLiga wins in 1996-97 and 2006-07.
Overall, the season has had its moments. But Pérez will not want to see his club trailing their fierce rivals by 14 points in LaLiga next year, nor hammered by Manchester City – or anyone else for that matter – in the Champions League. Work will already be underway to ensure there is no repeat of either and, with or without Ancelotti going forward, it should be another interesting summer at the Bernabéu.