Real Madrid's Lack of Rotation Has Cost Them the Champions League

Real Madrid's liberal approach to defending against Bayern Munich in their second-leg Champions League semifinal should be attributed simply to fatigue and lack of rotation.

It said a lot when David Alaba rampaged through the Madrid midfield, then through its defence, before laying an excellent goal scoring opportunity on a plate for Arjen Robben. The Dutchman's miss was equally as shocking as the space afforded to Alaba, but it would set the trend for the rest of the night.

On many levels, there's reason to understand why Jose Mourinho opted for more or less the same starting XI for three straight matches. The La Liga title was on the line, as was the opportunity to advance to the Champions League final without the fear of another Clasico rematch with Barcelona.

But there are players capable of coming in and doing an equally productive job as those in the starting lineups. More obviously, there are former league champions able to come in and do a job.

In the past week—a week that would define Madrid's season—Mourinho made little to no use of his outstanding squad, often hailed as the best in Europe.

Despite their early two-goal lead, and the instructions from Mourinho for his players to calm the play down and see out the next 10 or 15 minutes, Real Madrid never really looked like shutting down or keeping Bayern Munich quiet.

The Clasico at the Nou Camp would have been physically exhausting, even for a team given an extra injection of life following the result. The open spaces and seemingly countless opportunities Bayern had was reflective of how much Barcelona took out of this Madrid team.

Are there players in the Madrid squad capable of matching Bayern Munich over 90 minutes? Absolutely. Nuri Sahin did the double with Dortmund over title rivals Bayern last season, and Hamit Altintop was good enough to play for Bayern, so why not against them?

Perhaps more concerning was the lack of use Mourinho found for Kaka and Gonzalo Higuain over the past week.

Here are a combination of players able unlock defences and put the ball in the net. Kaka might be preferred from the bench for Mourinho, but this was very much a time to utilise the former World Player of the Year.

You can't help but think that the incident in extra time where the ball flashed between Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas would come to sum up Madrid's performance. It was not so much that Madrid played badly—they certainly didn't—but the lack of communication between the two would have been more down to fatigue, rather than inability.

Bayern, on the other hand, never seemed to miss a beat.

OK, there were the two chances which Madrid took to go 2-0 up, and Mario Gomez missed a host of chances that kept Madrid in the game, but for the most part Bayern always seemed better.

Maybe the fact that Borussia Dortmund had wrapped up the German league title last weekend played a part. A Dortmund win never seemed too far in doubt, and Bayern took that title defeat as an opportunity to rest players on the weekend against Werder Bremen.

The adrenaline of having at least one hand on the league title and a clear, Barcelona-free run at the Champions League should have been enough for Madrid. But it clearly wasn't enough to out-perform a very confident Bayern Munich.

Mourinho is often cited as one of the more tactically astute managers in European football—his almost impenetrable wall with Inter saw them through a relentless Barcelona two years ago—but on this occasion, over this vital week for the club, he simply misjudged the importance of his entire squad.