Real Madrid has been defeated repeatedly against Barcelona, ​​just because there are problems with Lafayette s transfer strategy?

Florentino Perez made a mistake in transfer strategy, and Real Madrid paid the price for this

Florentino Perez once pushed Real Madrid to glory with his smart transfer operations. However, this season, the chairman, known as the "Godfather of the Club", has been frequently caught in controversy and criticism.

In the 35th round of La Liga national derby, Real Madrid lost to Barcelona 3-4 away. This loss not only left the team behind the deadly rivals by as many as 7 points in the standings, almost proclaiming that they missed the La Liga championship this season, but also exposed serious problems in Real Madrid's lineup structure - and this is the direct consequence of Perez's imbalance in transfer strategy.

Defensive crisis: The consequences of structural imbalances

Just 14 minutes into the game, Real Madrid led 2-0, showing strong offensive firepower. But then the situation suddenly changed, and the defense line and the midfield collapsed one after another, and were eventually reversed.

The core reason for all this is Real Madrid's serious shortage of personnel in defense and midfield positions. Throughout the season, a large number of players in their defense have been injured for a long time. In the key battle against Barcelona, ​​Asensio (youth training player) and Chu Améni became the starting central defender combination, which fully demonstrates that Ancelotti is stretched to deploy troops.

This is not accidental, but the result of long-term neglect of defensive construction.

More than ten years ago, Perez used huge signings to create the "Galaxy Battleship II" with superstars such as Ronaldo, Bale, and Kaka. But in recent years, he has turned to a more cost-saving team building strategy - introducing a large number of free agents, such as Alaba (2021), Rudiger (2022) and Mbappe (2024). This strategy has eased the financial pressure brought by the epidemic on the surface, but in fact it has laid hidden dangers.

More importantly, Perez still tends to sign forwards and attackers first, while neglecting to strengthen the defense and midfield. For example, he signed Brazilian star Enderick for 80 million euros in the summer window of 2024 and signed Mbappe - but both deals happened in the frontcourt, not in the team's really weak position.

In fact, as early as last season, Ancelotti reminded the management many times that it needed to introduce new central defenders and midfielders, but it was not adopted.

Missed reinforcement opportunities

Real Madrid even gave up chasing Lille defender Lenny Yoro, as Manchester United was more active in the negotiations. In addition, the team has not looked for a suitable successor for the soon-to-retired Tony Cross.

"As" pointed out that this situation reminds people of the 2003/04 season, when Real Madrid introduced Beckham, but ignored the construction of the defensive system, resulting in the league conceding as many as 54 goals that season, setting a record for the highest number of this century.

Now Real Madrid is facing similar dangers: the defense line is broken, injuries occur frequently, and the overall stability is gone. The concept of "Galaxy Battleship 3.0" is beautiful, but if there is no balance, it will only repeat the same mistakes.

Although Mbappe scored more goals than other forward players this season, Vinicius and Enderick also have great potential, Real Madrid repeatedly lose when facing strong opponents. All four national derbys have been defeated this season, and the Champions League quarter-finals were swept out by Arsenal, which are examples.

This shows that the frontcourt stars alone cannot cover up the problem of the entire defense line.

The failure of this national derby was not only a technical and tactical failure, but also a major blow to Perez's team building philosophy. Spanish mainstream media Le Nation bluntly criticized Perez: "He did not learn from the failure of the first generation of the 'Galaxy Battleship'."

To turn the situation around, Real Madrid must re-examine their transfer strategy. We should no longer pursue free agents or offensive geniuses blindly, but should invest resources in positions that really need to be strengthened - especially central defenders and defensive midfielders.

3-4 loss to Barcelona is not only a loss in a game, but also a blow to Florentino Perez's current team-building idea.

Over relying on free agents, ignoring defense construction, and blindly pursuing commercial value - although these practices save money in the short term, they have repeatedly lost track at critical moments.

If you don't want to continue to lose your life in the matchup between giants, Real Madrid needs a thorough strategic adjustment. After all, the real "Galaxy Battleship" has never been composed only of offensive superstars.