Interim and out? 

©IMAGO

There’s little doubt that Real Madrid’s season will depend on how well their trip to Munich goes next week. With seven points now separating “Los Blancos” from Barcelona in LaLiga and a shock defeat to Albacete in the Copa del Rey in January, Madrid will be hoping to turn around a 2-1 deficit in the Champions League second leg or risk seeing their season fizzle out before the end of April. It will be all or nothing against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.

However, even before a ball is kicked in Bavaria, fans of the Spanish giants should have a decent read on where their club is heading under interim head coach Álvaro Arbeloa. On Friday, Madrid take on Girona in LaLiga in what will be the former Castilla head coach’s 20th game in charge since he replaced Xabi Alonso at the Bernabéu in mid-January. But as things stand, there’s very little to suggest that Madrid’s managerial change halfway through the season has done them any favours.

Indeed, after 19 games in charge of the club, Arbeloa has won 13 games, drawn zero and lost six across all competitions. That gives the 43-year-old coach an average of just 2.05 points per game. As we can see in the table above, not only has Arbeloa already amassed as many defeats in 19 games as Alonso managed in 34 games, but his average currently stands below Alonso’s average of 2.24. In fact, it’s a notable 8.4% less points per game than his predecessor, which is rather worrying when we consider that Alonso was ultimately deemed to be doing a lacklustre job in the Spanish capital.

Fortunately for Arbeloa, he’s judged on a different metric to that of Alonso or the managers that came before him. As an interim head coach, Arbeloa is instead seen as someone who was tasked with steadying the ship, while keeping the club’s main players happy. And that certainly seems to be what the former right-back has done, with Federico Valverde and Vinicius Junior looking far more comfortable on the pitch since Arbeloa seemingly released them from Alonso’s constricting tactics. The Brazilian forward, in particular, seems to have benefited the most from the managerial change in January.

“I was playing matches, but getting few minutes,” said Vinicius Jr before the first leg against Bayern, when asked about working under Alonso. “But every manager has his own methods and I didn’t click with him as he wanted. But it was a learning experience and I hope I can continue with Arbeloa, as I have a wonderful connection with him and he’s always given me confidence.” Since Arbeloa took over the job, Vinicius Jr has started all but one game in all competitions and the solitary exemption came when he had to sit out the club’s 2-0 win over Valencia due to a suspension.

In Arbeloa’s defence, he’s also had to contend with some serious injuries within his squad. Since taking over in January, the relatively inexperienced manager has had to deal with injuries to Thibaut Courtois, Éder Militão, Raúl Asencio, Ferland Mendy, Dani Ceballos and, perhaps most notably, Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo and Kylian Mbappé have missed a combined 16 games between them in LaLiga. And to Arbeloa’s credit, he’s tried to plug the holes in his team with exciting young talents from the club’s Castilla squad, such as 22-year-old forward Gonzalo García and 18-year-old central midfielder Thiago Pitarch – who started against Bayern over Bellingham on Tuesday night.

For fans of the LaLiga giants, the remainder of this season will be about getting over the line and in Arbeloa, they have a head coach who fits into the club’s hierarchy well, without causing too much of a stir in the media or potential fallouts within the squad. And while no serious contenders for the job have been earmarked for next season, it seems unlikely that Arbeloa will remain in the position after the summer. Even if Madrid fans consider the former player as one of their own and still hold some hope of causing an almighty upset in Munich next week.