Real Madrid's Early Season Inquest: Alvaro Benito's Concerns

Real Madrid’s uneasy start has turned what was billed as a grand Florentino Pérez project into a genuine early‑season inquest.

Seven games in, Madrid sit fourth in La Liga with 15 points. On paper, that is not a crisis. On the pitch, the doubts are multiplying.

Benito sounds the alarm

Alvaro Benito, once a Real Madrid player and now a sharp-tongued analyst, has become one of the loudest voices questioning the direction of the team, especially after the 2-1 derby defeat to Atletico at the Metropolitano.

Speaking to Cadena SER, in comments carried by Sport, he stripped the situation back to its core.

“Here the thinking needs to be much deeper,” he said. “If you have been seeing the same problems on the pitch for two and a half years, then the nature of these problems is exactly the same.”

The issue, in his eyes, goes far beyond a bad night in a hostile stadium.

“We do not see any change with the coaches, despite the different nature of each of them. So the problem is much deeper. Isn’t it? That is what I am saying.”

Different managers, same flaws. That is the accusation.

Wins that don’t convince

Benito pointed to a pattern: results that occasionally go Madrid’s way, performances that do not.

“The problems have persisted for two and a half years, and nothing has been solved,” he argued. “You can win. For example, you won the last match against Elche, but the impression the team leaves at a collective level is that the same problems keep recurring.”

The concern is not about a single defeat, but about a team that seems to repeat the same mistakes regardless of the opponent or the scoreline.

So when Madrid walked into the Metropolitano, Benito felt the script was already written.

“We could all have expected that, barring something exceptional, when you come to the Metropolitano stadium you would see what we in fact saw,” he said. “You could have won or lost, but I am not talking about losing or winning, because the road that leads to the result can take different paths.”

The derby, in his view, simply exposed what had been visible for a long time.

He even highlighted how small details might have twisted the outcome.

“If Cuti Romero had been sent off in the first half, then you might even have been able to win the match,” he noted. “I am talking about the collective impression, about the idea of play, what you offer, and which players you will put in the starting line-up in most matches.”

The result is secondary. The identity, or lack of it, is the real problem.

Mourinho’s missing blueprint

At the centre of Benito’s criticism sits José Mourinho. Not the man himself, but the version the football world has come to know: the coach of compact, ruthless, counter-attacking teams.

Benito insisted that this trademark has not appeared at the Bernabéu.

He argued that Mourinho “is not applying his well-known philosophy at Real Madrid,” a failure that could prove damaging for a squad seemingly built to spring forward at speed once the ball is won.

“Mourinho historically relies on a very strong medium defensive block, a team with compact lines, ferocious pressing, winning the ball back and then attacking directly and quickly. Excellent,” Benito said.

“This style would be ideal for Real Madrid, given the characteristics of the players they have, but the problem is that we do not see it.”

A club accustomed to clear eras and powerful identities now finds itself caught between ideas, with a coach accused of not playing to his own strengths or those of his squad.

For a project of this scale, and a president as demanding as Florentino Pérez, the real question is no longer about fourth place in September. It is how long a team of this stature can afford to drift without a recognisable face on the pitch.