A New Year's Resolution for Real Madrid Boss Rafa Benitez

So the new year is almost here, and Rafa Benitez still has his job. For the Real Madrid boss, it's a start; many didn't think he'd get this far. 

Ever since the day Benitez was appointed back in June, doubts and speculation have surrounded the Madrileno, and it's only intensified as the season has wore on. First, the focus was on his relationships with his players. Next, it was on a perceived defensive emphasis to his management. Then it moved on to his team's puzzling identity. And since the Clasico hammering from Barcelona in November, it's been on, well, everything—style, tactics, relationships, personality, suitability, credentials. The focus has even extended to replacements, too.

Indeed, a recent poll from AS had both Zinedine Zidane and Victor Fernandez as preferred options to Benitez among readers. Another one revealed that 49.5 percent would be in favour of Jose Mourinho returning to the club. 

At times, the message has felt like "anyone but Benitez."

It's time for a new year's resolution, then. 

The Initial Deviation

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It might have been a forced deviation, but it was a deviation nonetheless. 

When Barcelona visited the Bernabeu for the season's first Clasico in November, Benitez faced a conundrum. Until that point his team had laboured by Real Madrid standards, and criticism had been rife over the manager's apparent conservatism in structuring his side.

As such, when the Clasico arrived, there was a yearning from fans and media alike for Benitez to throw off the shackles and attack. Additionally, the returns to fitness of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez heightened the implied political pressure on Benitez from president Florentino Perez to field all of the club's marquee names in attack. 

Politically, then, he had to go for it; rationally, though, he wouldn't have wanted to. His side wasn't ready. The team had barely played in that manner or in that setup. And the opponents were Barcelona. But he bowed to the pressure anyway. 

The results, of course, were catastrophic. 

"This was not what Benitez wanted," wrote the Guardian's Sid Lowe in the aftermath of the 4-0 thrashing that prompted outrage at the Bernabeu. "But it was easy enough to imagine him thinking: 'This is what you wanted and now look.' This did not feel like his team but theirs."

For the most part, Benitez has carried on that way since, doing it their way in an attempt to please them—"them" being the fans, media, players and president. It hasn't worked; the loss to Villarreal was almost as alarming in its manner as the loss to Barcelona, and the crushing wins over Malmo and a nine-man Rayo Vallecano don't change that. 

Why do it their way, then?

Resolution

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The harsh truth for Benitez is this: In all likelihood, he'll be sacked at some point in 2016 (despite the bulk of the club's problems being the result of Perez's flawed approach to presidency). Of course, that thought will be disheartening for the former Napoli boss, but in a strange sort of way, it might be positive for him. 

Now almost certainly facing the axe, Benitez has perhaps reached a point at which he has nothing left to lose. If he continues down the current path, he'll be sacked, and the current path isn't him. Not at all.

Throughout his career, Benitez has always been about order, discipline and tactical coherence; he's not as defensive as many like to make out, but he values structure and has always prioritised the collective over the individual. That's him; that's who he is.

And that's the point in all of this: If he's going to get sacked doing it their way, he may as well get sacked doing it his way. 

For Benitez, doing it his way could involve breaking up the BBC at times and using a four-man midfield. It could involve ignoring the price tag of Danilo and using the cheaper but superior Daniel Carvajal. Maybe it's using the defensive-minded Casemiro at the expense of attacking stars as often as he pleases. Or opting for the energy of Mateo Kovacic more regularly. Or removing star names for the less glamorous but hard-working options in Lucas Vazquez and Denis Cheryshev. 

He may as well; there's not much to lose. Benitez's skill has always been crafting teams that are functional and effective, and it's worth returning to that if the other way—attempting to please others, picking the "Perez XI," bowing to star names, abandoning his principles—not only doesn't work but will also result in his dismissal. 

Thus, Benitez's new year's resolution could be simple: be himself, regardless of the consequences.