Real Madrid’s performance against Valencia proves Los Blancos still need to rebuild

Real Madrid’s visit to Valencia was not an important game for Los Blancos in terms of their standings in La Liga. Zidane’s men said good-bye to their title hopes well before the Frenchman accepted to make his return to the Spanish capital, but still Madrid struggled against Valencia, couldn’t create quality chances nor defend counterattacks properly.

Make no mistake. Solari was a poor coach and appointing Zidane is an improvement, but Madrid still have to face a rebuild in the summer if they want to compete for all three titles next season. Some fans —maybe even some members of the board— were hoping that one or two good signings here and there would be enough now that the French coach is back, but Los Blancos will need more than that.

This core of players deserve all the credit for the Champions League three-peat. Players like Marcelo, Gareth Bale, Lucas Vazquez or Keylor Navas have been crucial but it’s now time to trust other players.

Madrid will have to go to the transfer market if they want to successfully replace those men, though.

So far, they’ve spent €50 million on Porto defender Militao and it looks like Chelsea’s Eden Hazard could also join the team next summer if Madrid are interested enough to pay close to €100 million. Los Blancos will likely need yet another attacker who can provide a scoring punch while also creating chances for the rest of the team.

Real Madrid need to build a successful, creative and accurate attacking system and that’s something they won’t be able to do with the current squad. They were wrong when they sold Cristiano Ronaldo without a quality replacement and now the board will have to make it right and spend all the money they saved during the past few years.