5 Things for Real Madrid Fans to Look Forward to in 2015/16 Liga Season
The 2014-15 season ended on a sour note for Real Madrid, with Barcelona beating them to the Primera Division title, while Juventus ended their quest for an 11th Champions League crown by eliminating them at the semi-final stage.
Carlo Ancelotti was relieved of his duties at the conclusion of the campaign and the club will therefore go into next season with a new coach.
Danilo is definitely joining from Porto and other players will almost certainly be added to the squad over the course of the summer.
Next season, the club will be seeking to end a three-year stretch without a Primera Division title, while they will also want to compete strongly in the Champions League.
Here are five things for Real Madrid fans to look forward to in the 2015/16 season.
A New Coach
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Carlo Ancelotti was a popular figure with supporters, the media and players alike. But with the amiable Italian now having departed, the arrival of a new coach will provide a degree of intrigue in the build-up to the new campaign.
Rafael Benitez is the runaway favourite to succeed Ancelotti. He announced his departure from Napoli at a press conference on Thursday and could be presented as Madrid’s new coach as early as next Wednesday, as per Spanish television presenter Josep Pedrerol (h/t AS).
Ancelotti arrived with a reputation for being a coach who was willing to adapt his tactical structure to suit the players at his disposal. Benitez, in contrast, is very much a 4-2-3-1 man.
Per Football Lineups, he has used that formation in all 75 of his league matches in charge of Napoli to date. And he largely used the same alignment at both Liverpool and Valencia.
It will therefore be interesting to see how he handles a Madrid squad that features three forwards, in Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, whom Ancelotti considered undroppable.
On the other hand, Asier Illarramendi may now be persuaded to stay at the Bernabeu, given that Benitez’s system is likely to feature a double-pivot—a position in which the 25-year-old thrived at Real Sociedad.
The Competition Between Danilo and Dani Carvajal
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Dani Carvajal and Alvaro Arbeloa shared right-back duties for much of the 2013-14 season but during the last campaign it was Carvajal who emerged as the bona fide first choice.
The academy graduate will, however, face stiffer competition next season in the form of Danilo, whom Madrid have paid €31.5 million to sign on a six-year deal from FC Porto, as per UEFA.com.
The 23-year-old has been a regular for Brazil since Dunga took over as national team coach in the wake of last summer’s World Cup and was highly impressive for Porto during the season just ended.
Arbeloa offered a contrast to Carvajal as a more solid and steady presence at full-back. He was someone to bring into the side for occasions when it was necessary to balance out the attacking nature of both of Madrid’s left-back options: Fabio Coentrao and Marcelo.
That meant that the pair were not really in direct competition once Carlo Ancelotti decided that Carvajal was his preferred choice. Arbeloa was only brought into the side to fulfil a specific purpose in certain matches, or to deputise when Carvajal was unavailable.
Danilo, however, is built from the same buccaneering-full-back template as Carvajal. Their battle for supremacy is likely to be one of the most interesting subplots of next season.
The Return to Fitness of Luka Modric
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Luka Modric emerged as Real Madrid’s best midfielder during Carlo Ancelotti’s first season at the Bernabeu and continued that form into the start of the last campaign.
He was, however, then cut down by a thigh injury suffered on international duty with Croatia in November.
Madrid continued apace for a while but when the going started to get tough early into 2015 it was clear just how much they missed him.
Per Soccerway, from January 1 until his return to league action against Levante on March 15, Madrid lost three and drew one of their 11 league matches.
They were also eliminated from the Copa del Rey at the hands of Atletico Madrid.
Los Blancos won 2-0 in his first match back, performed well until he began to tire during their narrow 2-1 defeat to Barcelona at Camp Nou and then won four on the bounce thereafter.
The last of those victories did, however, come at a cost. Modric limped off on the hour mark, with scans later revealing, as per the Guardian, that he had sprained a ligament in his right knee.
That effectively ended his season and meant that by the conclusion of the campaign, the Croatian had, as per Soccerway, been involved in less than half of the club’s league matches.
Madrid look a much better side with the 29-year-old fit and present in the centre of their midfield. With a summer of rest to recuperate and revitalise, he should return stronger next season.
New Recruits
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David de Gea has been the player most readily linked with Real Madrid over the last six months or so. The Manchester United goalkeeper is yet to sign an extension to his current deal with the English club, which expires in summer 2016.
Current custodian Iker Casillas indicated earlier this week that he would be happy to see De Gea in Madrid. “If De Gea does come here, he will be welcomed,” he told Cadena Ser radio (h/t Eurosport).
“We have a good relationship and I will give him a helping hand. We will have to fight and compete for a place just like we do in the national team.”
Other incomings are also likely. The club took the slightly strange measure of issuing a statement on Thursday denying that they had made an offer for Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba.
They have previously been linked with David Alaba of Bayern Munich, as per Jose Felix Diaz of Marca, and a whole new round of speculation will begin once the identity of their new coach is publicly confirmed.
There is rarely a quiet summer at the Bernabeu and Madrid fans are likely to have at least two or three new faces to support next season.
Young Starlets out on Loan
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Real Madrid have, over the last year or so, initiated a policy of signing up the best teenage talent they can attract to the club.
The process started with the signing of Mink Peeters from PSV Eindhoven and continued with the purchases of Marco Asensio from Mallorca, Martin Odegaard from Stromsgodset and, as per AS, Federico Valverde from the Uruguayan giants Penarol.
These players have been added to a pool of promising homegrown youngsters, including the likes of Alvaro Medran, Borja Mayoral and Marcos Llorente—all of whom were called up to the first-team squad on occasion during the 2014-15 season.
Castilla’s failure to gain promotion to the Segunda Division has left the club in a position where it makes little sense to keep their most-promising youngsters in house. There is more to be gained from sending them out on loan than in exposing them to third-tier football with the B team.
Madrid supporters will therefore have the pleasure of following the exploits of the club’s young hopefuls elsewhere. They will be able to see how these players cope with regular competitive football and perhaps establish which of them are most likely to have a long-term future at the Bernabeu.
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