Guti interview: “This is Real Madrid, it’s always tough to be the coach”

It’s March, it’s the Champions League, and that usually means that Real Madrid are hitting their stride. Typically this is the point of the season when the ‘Kings of Europe’ activate their own sporting version of divine right and march towards another famous continental triumph.

But things are slightly different this year and there’s a rare a sense of apprehension around Real Madrid. The team feels unusually rickety as it prepares for a fifth consecutive knockout meeting with Manchester City. Madrid are suffering from a spate of injuries to key players, have struggled for form in LaLiga, and are led by a rookie coach parachuted in mid-season.

All those factors are weighing on the mind of Real Madrid legend Guti, who will be calling Wednesday’s first leg on DAZN’s Spanish-language broadcast in the United States. Speaking to AS USA ahead of the clash, three-time Champions League winner Guti admitted that things have not gone to plan so far for Los Blancos.

“The team is in a difficult moment, very difficult. They have a lot of injuries, and the team is not playing quite as well as Madrid would want. But this is Real Madrid’s competition. Always, in these moments, the players are at their best, full of strength and with the will to win.”

A season of change

Heading into Wednesday’s first leg at the Bernabéu, the man in the Madrid technical area will know that his future may well depend on the next 180 minutes of Champions League action. After four years under the calm guidance of Carlo Ancelotti - an eternity at Real Madrid - his successor Xabi Alonso was given just seven months before being replaced, giving way to Álvaro Arbeloa.

While Alonso arrived as one of the hottest coaching prospects in Europe, Arbeloa’s CV consisted of a modest 19-game stint in charge of Real Madrid B. Arbeloa may only have taken charge of the team in January but there will be no allowances made for the rookie coach. Having spent 15 seasons with Real Madrid, and having played under no fewer than 16 different coaches, Guti knows only too well that change is a fact of life in the Spanish capital.

“It’s complicated, always. Adapting yourself to a new coach is difficult when the coach comes in halfway through the season. In this sense it’s worrying for Real Madrid, it’s worrying for the players. But they know what club they are a part of, they always have to give 100%.”

There are few tougher assignments in the world of sport than ‘Head Coach of Real Madrid’. It’s a role that many have held - sometimes briefly - but few have truly looked at home in. The size of the club, the history, the scrutiny; it can be a very uncomfortable posting for anyone unfamiliar with the outsized Madridista expectations. Fortunately for Arbeloa, he is no stranger to the galactic demands of Real Madrid and he will hope to follow in the footsteps of the select few who have found themselves at home in the Bernabéu.

Champions League ambitions

At most clubs, an inexperienced coach arriving in the middle of a difficult season would be given relatively modest goals for the remainder of the campaign. Rebuild some confidence, work with the players, guide the team through to summer. At Real Madrid, however, Álvaro Arbeloa is expected to win the Champions League. The fact that he joined midway through the season will be of little interest to the decision-makers in Chamartín. In fairness, they have seen it done before. Twice.

Vicente del Bosque was named Real Madrid head coach in November 1999 and promptly guided them to an eighth Champions League triumph later that season. A similar thing happened in January 2016 when Zinedine Zidane took charge of Madrid in his first senior coaching role. Four months later Zidane’s team won the Champions League. And did so again a year later. And then again the year after that.

Guti was a long-time teammate of Zidane and was a part of the team that won the 1999/2000 Champions League under Del Bosque. Both wildly successful Real Madrid coaches, Del Bosque and Zidane were willing to empower their players and trust that the club’s big personalities would see them through. For that first triumph under Del Bosque, Guti believes that the team’s mentality was crucial.

“I think it was the group [that was the key to victory]. The group came above any player, above the individualities of each player. I think the group knew what to do in difficult moments, knew how to play in big games. We knew how to get into the final and how to win the Champions League."

“In the end, I don’t think we were a team of absolute stars, but it’s true that we were a very strong group. That was what allowed us to win the Champions League that year.”

Knowing the club

It’s not a coincidence that both Del Bosque and Zidane knew the club before arriving. They really knew the club. Del Bosque was a Real Madrid academy graduate who spent 17 years in the senior team, winning five LaLiga titles as a player. Meanwhile Zidane is one of Real Madrid’s true greats, the Galactico of the Galacticos and a three-time FIFA World Player of the Year. Both grew accustomed to the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the Bernabéu during the playing careers, and thrived in it as coaches.

And while Arbeloa is not the most illustrious of Real Madrid legends, he probably is one. He progressed through the youth teams and spent eight years with the senior team, making 237 appearances and picking up two Champions League winner’s medals. That takes character and personality, two traits that are non-negotiables at Madrid.

Guti explained: “[Arbeloa is] a winner, a natural winner. He knows very well what it is to be at Real Madrid. As a coach we don’t really know him yet, he was with the youth teams and hadn’t coached in a top division before. But he has all the qualities that you would need. He’s a young coach, a brave coach, and a coach that knows Real Madrid and knows the values of this club.”

“But in the end this is Real Madrid, it’s always tough to be the coach.”

It is difficult to think of another coaching job where ‘knowing the club’ ranks so highly on the list of requirements. Arbeloa has many gaps in his elite-level CV but there can be no doubt about his connection to and understanding of the club. Will that be enough against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City? The Bernabéu will be hoping that a bit of the old magic can see them through in the Champions League, just as it has in the past.

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