Real Madrid’s crushing loss to Paris Saint-Germain showcases long-lasting imbalance of Los Blancos’ roster

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – It is incredibly easy to build hype around a clash between the last two winners of the UEFA Champions League, to the point that the ancillary parts of the experience, like a roaring crowd and an excessive amount of fireworks for a weekday afternoon, are almost proof of prestige. The fanfare was fleeting, though, as Paris Saint-Germain notched a 4-0 win over Real Madrid in the Club World Cup semifinals on Wednesday in one of the competition’s most lopsided matches.

Luis Enrique‘s side sucked the energy out of MetLife Stadium, host to a pro-Madrid crowd, with Fabian Ruiz’s sixth minute goal. Ousmane Dembele added another in the ninth and Ruiz completed a brace in the 24th. There was some shock value in PSG’s quickness but by the time the halftime whistle was accompanied by boos from the Madrid faithful, the lopsided result did not come as a surprise. When Enrique described PSG and Madrid as teams in “two very different situations” on Tuesday, he may not have meant that a lopsided win was in the cards, but it was not hard to envision one. PSG are in the habit of overwhelming opponents and pummeling them along the way, as their 5-0 win over Inter in the Champions League final on May 31 exemplifies. It meant that an obviously imperfect Madrid, honestly, stood no chance.

There are new names in the mix for Los Blancos, chief among them manager Xabi Alonso and their Club World Cup breakout player Gonzalo Garcia, but the issues are still the same. While PSG personify consistency, demolishing titans of the game like Inter and Madrid and minnows like Inter Miami with equal efficiency, Los Blancos exude imbalance. The inability to find stability cost them time and time again this season and has now resulted in their first trophyless season in four years and makes their problems harder and harder to ignore.

While PSG ditched their star-focused strategy just before their historic treble-winning campaign, Real Madrid are still stuck living the realities of a squad with too much excess. Wednesday marked Alonso’s first genuine opportunity to start Garcia alongside Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe, the 21-year-old taking a more central role in a three-person front line. The results left something to be desired – the three of them combined for five shots, four coming from Mbappe and none from Garcia, all for a total of 0.47 expected goals. It marked most of Madrid’s output on a day they were clearly second-best, posting 11 shots in total and 0.75 expected goals and holding just 32% possession.

That outing is not necessarily an indictment on the individual players’ abilities or even Alonso’s, nor is it a sign that there is no balance to be found between Real Madrid’s attacking talents. It is also not a major surprise that Alonso could not get the best out of this group in their very first start together but the 4-0 defeat to PSG is as stark a reminder as any that the balance Alonso has to strike is not just with his forwards but that there is work to do in just about every area of the pitch.

To name just one example, they were without Trent Alexander-Arnold through injury, and though Federico Valverde is as versatile as it comes, filling in at right back is not where his strengths lie. It made the battle on the wings all the more difficult for Real Madrid, since it is this area of the pitch that is the foundation of PSG’s success. Even more glaring, though, was the abysmal outing of center backs Antonio Rudiger and Raul Asensio, the latest to be outclassed by PSG’s attacking unit. Beyond ineffective, they were frazzled and more so responsible for the result than the attacking trio that draws most of the headlines.

It made for the most inadequate sendoff for Luka Modric, who played 25 minutes in his final match for Real Madrid. That, too, offered a glimpse at the team’s woes — two months shy of his 40th birthday, there is nothing unfair about Madrid’s decision to move on from a generational great, even if he still has the ability and desire to keep going. The midfield maestro, though, could offer nothing to a game that was already 3-0 in the opponent’s favor. The game not only marked the end of an era for Modric, the only player to snap up the Ballon d’Or during a 13-year spell in which Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo traded the award back and forth. It was the end of an era for Madrid, signaling that a new project must take shape.

With a new manager, there is no better timing for a refresh, even if Mbappe’s arrival was supposed to represent a team at the peak of their powers. How much work can be done before their first La Liga match on Aug. 19 is a big question, with Alonso rightly noting that a vacation is in order for a group of players who have played almost nonstop for 11 months. A rebuild may not be on brand for Europe’s most successful club, but 13 months removed from their last trophy, it is their only option — whether they like it or not.

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