At Real Madrid, Rafa Benitez Facing a Conundrum That's Encapsulated by Casemiro

Defensive football, huh? In a quiet moment, perhaps sat in front of a fire with a glass of Rioja in hand, Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez might simply look blankly into the flames and shake his head. "What do they want?" he might mumble to himself.

In the aftermath of Real's derby draw with neighbours Atletico Madrid on Sunday, Benitez's "brand" of football at the Bernabeu has been labelled many things, few of them encouraging: negative, pessimistic, lacking ambition, stifling, over-complicated and, worst of all, defensive. Yes, defensive—the dreaded "D" word that must not be spoken. 

"Rafa Benitez: 10 goals less than Ancelotti after seven games," ran a headline from AS. "There is a defensive propensity to the side that was clear to see at the Calderon in the derby," the Madrid-based daily continued, the apparent suggestion that such a trait is toxic.

If the suggestion itself had been strong, though, the conclusion was scathing: "[Benitez] is in no-man's land," it said.

Thump. 

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

In isolation, there's nothing inherently wrong in grumbling about a perceived defensive emphasis. But there is when that defensive emphasis is something you'd been asking for not long ago: When Real Madrid were embarrassed by Schalke in a 4-3 loss at the Bernabeu in March—a Schalke team that wouldn't win again for almost two months, scoring just five goals in the six games that followed—Madrid's defending, said AS, had "reached the ridiculous."

Frankly, it wasn't the only occasion it did so. It was ridiculous against Real Sociedad in August 2014. It was ridiculous against Atletico in February. It was ridiculous against Getafe in May too, given Getafe entered that game with 30 goals in 37 league games but put three past Real. 

Thus, the manner in which the early weeks of Benitez's tenure at Real Madrid are being compared with those of Carlo Ancelotti's is baffling: Has it been forgotten that Ancelotti didn't win the league? That the reason Real Madrid have repeatedly failed to do so is due to defending, or a lack thereof? 

After all, it's this that Benitez was brought to the Bernabeu to address. And yet he's being criticised because his team's performance indicators to date differ from those belonging the previous regime that—remember this crucial part—failed. 

Some, it seems, are literally asking for previous mistakes to be repeated. 

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Ancelotti, of course, was hardly solely to blame for Madrid's defensive deficiencies; because of his club's transfer dealings, he was compelled to abandon conventional balance and field an out-and-out attacking team. At one stage, it looked like it might work, but a harsh reality eventually hit: You have to play both sides of the game to win. 

Yet for many both involved and connected with Real Madrid, such a concept appears to be foreign. This is a club—"club," in this case, a broad term that also encompasses those who support and cover it—at which too many want to see the team forever dazzle but never graft; inspire but never dig in; dominate but never defend. 

Somewhere, somehow, an idea that Real Madrid must play a certain brand has taken precedence over something more important: Real Madrid must win. Teams that don't defend, well, they don't. But then, Madrid should know this.

Since the beginning of the 2008-09 season in La Liga, one goal separates Real Madrid and Barcelona (748 and 749 respectively) in the goals-for column. One. But in the goals-against column, it's Real Madrid at 272 to Barcelona at 212, a difference of 60. 

Guess which club has won five titles in that period, and guess which has won one. Evidently, winning 8-2 against Deportivo La Coruna doesn't win you titles; emerging relatively unscathed from the toughest fixtures on the calendar does.

Thus, we return to the derby. And Casemiro.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

In a three-man midfield, the Brazilian was magnificent for Los Blancos. Uninterested in pushing forward, not worried about taking centre stage, the 23-year-old simply rubbed his hands together and did his job: tackle, scrap, fight and repel. According to numbers from WhoScored.com, no one on the pitch did it better or more often. And Madrid, at the site where they were emasculated in February, walked away with a point as a result. 

Disaster? Hardly.

Casemiro, you sense, relishes getting his hands dirty. He's like a junkyard dog dressed in a white uniform, and that's meant in the most complimentary way possible. In the summer, when he was asked what he would do for Madrid this season, his answer, per Marca (h/t Football Espana), was concise: "To go out like a bull and fight."

After those words, Benitez might have wanted to adopt him. Or at least play him every week. 

Yet that's the issue for Benitez—he can't. Playing Casemiro regularly and, most crucially, in big games will mean that one of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos (the glittering six, basically) has to miss out, the firepower dialled down. And that encapsulates the manager's broader conundrum: How does he quench the external thirst for attacking fury while concurrently addressing the defensive fragilities that have held this club back?

Casemiro, merely through his presence, heightens the sense of a necessary defensive emphasis, but that exact emphasis is what will lead to building pressure on the manager. 

It's this battle, therefore, that will persist for Benitez and is one that might define his tenure. But while his team remains undefeated, while his club's position remains healthy, while signs of previous problems being addressed are evident, attacks on his "brand" are short-sighted.

Though the exact extent of Real Madrid's progression thus far is hard to pinpoint, and though the team's opening to the season contains some contradictory elements, Benitez is showing a clear intent to do what he must in order to win: change the status quo at a club where the status quo hasn't been working.