With just over an hour played at the Bernabeu on Sunday against Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid’s defence disappeared.
The score was 1-1 and Madrid were attacking a corner. Seconds later, Rayo’s Andrei Ratiu was sprinting into the Madrid half with no outfield players near him.
The only player able to chase and get near Ratiu was the young forward Gonzalo Garcia, who was nominally playing on the right wing.
Gonzalo did enough to make life difficult for Ratiu, forcing him to shoot hurriedly with his left foot and Thibaut Courtois was able to make a crucial save, a familiar sight for Madrid fans.
Cheers for Courtois were soon replaced by whistles towards the team as a whole, with the supporters in disbelief at how easy it had been for Rayo to carve out an opening.
There was a similar reaction 40 minutes later, when the referee Isidro Diaz de Mera blew for full-time on a 2-1 win for the home side.
The Bernabeu crowd’s initial roar to celebrate the victory was immediately followed by even louder whistles to make sure that the Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa and his players knew that despite the dramatic manner of their late win, they were still not happy with what they had seen.
Madrid had been outplayed by a better-organised Rayo for much of the game. With 10 minutes to play Diaz de Mera flashed a deserved red card for a wild challenge by visiting midfielder Pathe Ciss on Madrid substitute Dani Ceballos.
Arbeloa’s team eventually won thanks to a penalty converted by Kylian Mbappe with 99 minutes 34 seconds on the clock. Rayo had already been enraged by the nine minutes added on by the officials.
1 – Kylian Mbappé scored the latest winning goal for Real Madrid in a LaLiga match in the 21st century (99:34). Saviour. pic.twitter.com/hmf1hJjhmX
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 1, 2026
Even after Rayo were reduced to nine men when left-back Pep Chavarria was shown a second yellow, Mbappe took the ball towards the corner flag to waste time and help protect his team’s 2-1 lead before the final whistle.
The result means Madrid remain second in the table, just a point behind Barcelona. But the performance made clear that unless Arbeloa’s team suddenly starts to play an awful lot better, they are very unlikely to realistically challenge their Clasico rivals for the title.
The whistles and jeers for Madrid’s players were not as loud and widespread as those which overshadowed the 2-0 victory against Levante a fortnight ago in Arbeloa’s first game in charge at the Bernabeu.
Yet through Sunday’s game against Rayo, unhappiness kept breaking out among the Madrid fanbase as their team struggled against a team sat 17th in La Liga.
Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham were again among those players targeted, although the former scored a fine goal and the latter only lasted 10 minutes before being taken off with a hamstring injury.
Arbeloa’s substitutions were met with disapproval from the home crowd, who appeared to be questioning if the rookie coach knew what he was doing.
The evidence of a month in the job is that Arbeloa is really struggling, especially when it comes to his tactics. This should not really be a surprise given he was appointed last month to replace his former team-mate Xabi Alonso with his only coaching experience in senior football being six months in charge of Madrid’s Castilla youth team in Spain’s third tier.
The most glaring example of Madrid’s disorganisation was Ratiu’s missed chance, but there were plenty more. Rayo’s equaliser from Jorge de Frutos a few minutes after half-time was also due to a systems failure in defence — with Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni among those responsible.
Both are midfielders by trade, and do not have the natural instincts of defenders in these situations. Another natural midfielder, Eduardo Camavinga, was playing at left-back, even though Arbeloa had four actual defenders sitting on the bench (Dani Carvajal, David Alaba, Alvaro Carreras and Fran Garcia).
The new coach appears to be trying to fit as many of his big-name players into the line-up as he can — even if that means his team lacking balance and organisation.
Being Real Madrid coach means having to deal with superstar egos and potential tantrums. One of the reasons why Alonso only lasted eight months was the Basque being unable to convince some of the stars to buy into his methods.
Arbeloa’s selection decisions since he took the job — such as immediately bringing back talented but inexperienced Franco Mastantuono and Arda Guler into the XI — show his buy-in to a star-first policy that most people believe is backed by the club president Florentino Perez.
But throwing the most talented individuals onto the pitch does not make a team. Individual quality will often be enough to win most games against rival teams with much smaller budgets. Vinicius Jr’s superb individual goal on Sunday appeared to set Madrid on the way to victory against a team whose total 2025-26 La Liga salary limit of €47million is dwarfed by Madrid’s €761m. The afternoon would likely have been quieter at the Bernabeu had Mbappe not missed an almost open goal midway through the second half.
¡Al larguero @KMbappe! @realmadrid | LALIGAHighlights pic.twitter.com/CHqpA1YBk6
— LALIGA (@LaLiga) February 1, 2026
But Arbeloa has so far been unable to mould an impressive team. He talks a lot about attitude and commitment but his superstars are not working harder defensively. Inigo Perez’s well-coached Rayo side knew how to take advantage — just as Jose Mourinho’s Benfica completely outplayed them while winning 4-2 in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Six games into his reign, there is no sign of the type of football that Arbeloa wants his team to play. There is no balance in the side, no clear game plan, no clever tactical ideas to help them shine. The impression is that he trusts his players to know what to do, but more is needed at the top level in modern football.
During the chaos after Rayo went a man down, Madrid’s attacking play lacked any shape at all. Positions meant nothing, with centre-forward Mbappe spotted out on the right wing, right-back Valverde at inside left, defender Alaba as an emergency No 9.
Madrid’s players regularly looked to the referee to intervene — Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Camavinga and Brahim Diaz all had penalty claims turned down before Diaz de Mera did point to the spot after a mistimed tackle by young Rayo defender Nobel Mendy on Brahim.
Arbeloa has won all four of his La Liga games in charge, but they have only intermittently impressed. The Copa del Rey exit at Segunda side Albacete and the Champions League defeat by Benfica weigh heavier at the moment.
Asked at his press conference on Sunday if he was happy with how his team were playing after his first month in charge, Arbeloa tried to make a Lord of the Rings joke which did not completely land.
“It’s not like I’m Gandalf the White,” he replied, waiting for a laugh which did not come, before adding: “What I wanted from the players is what I am seeing — commitment and attitude.”
Arbeloa also told the news conference that he was aware of the need for improvement in their play, while lamenting that he had not had enough training sessions yet to really get his ideas across to his players.
“We must work on all phases of the game, improve with and without the ball,” he said. “I often tell the players that an ideal team is one where everyone thinks the same way. I’ve missed having training sessions, as a coach, to be able to improve individually and collectively.”
A new coach not having enough time to work in training with his players might possibly have occurred to Madrid president Perez before he sacked Alonso in early January and appointed Arbeloa.
That decision shows that patience is not often found at the Bernabeu, which Arbeloa surely knows, and Friday’s Champions League draw means that Mourinho’s Benfica now loom in his near future again, with their play-off first leg in Lisbon on February 17.
The Copa exit to Albacete means Arbeloa has a full week to prepare for next the league trip to Valencia. Vinicius Jr is suspended for that game, while Bellingham will likely miss out after limping off against Rayo.
Having fewer superstars to pack into his XI might, counterintuitively, actually work out well for Arbeloa. It could allow him to pick more players in their preferred positions, leading to a more balanced team structure, providing a better collective platform to allow individuals to shine.
If Arbeloa really does have some convincing ideas about how he wants his team to play, he needs to get them across — and quickly.