Rijkaard on Real Madrid’s shortlist…

The joy of Real Madrid’s title in May has made place for dread. It’s only November and the C-word (crisis) has been used many times already.

The team is basically the same as last season’s, the club trails two points behind Barca and has all the trumps in hand in the CL.

But, the quality of play is below par, the defense is weak and Bernd Schuster is grumpy. This all became worse after their defeat in the Copa Del Rey.

Real Union, a third liga club, scored six times against the Royal Merengues. The same Real Madrid that copped 16 goals in ten games. That allowed Juve to take 6 points and score 4 times.

Any reporter worth his salt would have asked Schuster: how come Madrid is conceding all these goals?
“I don’t know.” Is all he says. Or…”The problem is that our opponent gets a limited number of chances and score while we create a lot and we don’t score.” And whenever a coach claims he “doesn’t know”, his resignation is being printed out.

Tuesday, the Madrid board gathered to talk about the future of Schuster. Chairman Calderon is the only board member to support the German coach. Apparently the message to Schuster is: get the team swinging against Valladolid, or start packing. Chief scout Portugal will take over and for the longer term Juande Ramos (ex-Valencia, ex-Spurs) and Frank Rijkaard (ex-Barca and ex..ehm…Sparta) are named on the short list.

Calderon supports Schuster because he realizes he ignored Schuster’s claims for new players, focusing on one C Ronaldo only. The only signing Schuster was allowed was Raf van der Vaart, as replacement for the seriously injured Sneijder. Oh, and Robinho was allowed to leave for Man City.

Schuster is criticized for stubbornly holding on to 4-3-3 while Real only has one winger in Arjen Robben. Who, by the way, is injured more than that he’s playing. And then there’s other injuries, of which Ruud van Nistelrooy’s seems to be the most serious one.

Higuain and Raul seem to take care of business up front, but the main problems are at the back and on midfield. Playing Sneijder, Guti, Vaart, Gago and recently Drenthe means there’s a lot of offensive thinking players.

Schuster doesn’t seem to worry: “I hear people are worried about my position here. Fine. Let them. I don’t worry about it.” That was one of the few real sentences he uttered. And that is another problem for Real Madrid. The club feels they need a coach who represents the club better. Mourinho and Van Gaal are not an option, therefore…