Thibaut Courtois criticised his teammates’ performance in El Clásico and questioned coach Ancelotti’s tactics

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois admitted that his team could have lost by a much higher margin in Sunday’s El Clásico. In a post-match interview, he fried his teammates for a toothless performance and questioned Carlo Ancelotti’s tactics.

Thibaut Courtois saved Real Madrid from an even bigger debacle

In Sunday’s El Clásico, where Real Madrid hosted their age-old rivals FC Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, the home side suffered a 0:4 debacle and after a disgraceful performance, not only the media was left high and dry.

The only White Ballet player who endured a tougher standard was Thibaut Courtois. He saved his team from an even bigger beating. Having only watched the woeful performance of his defensive unit, which let the home goalkeeper down for the entire 90 minutes, he felt rightly frustrated.

Criticism of teammates

The Belgian goalkeeper, who before the game received the award for the best player of the month of February in the Spanish La Liga, certainly had a different idea of his celebratory night. “Today we gave this club an unacceptable image, ” Courtois, who has been in terrific goalkeeping form this season, told Goal.com. “We were not compact enough and we couldn’t keep them away from goal,” the frustrated goalkeeper assessed his teammates’ performance.

“The mark of this club requires you to fight in every situation and we didn’t do that in the second half,” the White Ballet custodian criticised the lack of commitment from Los Blancos players. “We come out after the break with the idea of getting back into the game and after 10 seconds a lone Ferran Torres is coming at me, we could have lost much more,” he added incomprehensibly.

The Belgian goalkeeper also questioned coach Ancelotti’s tactics

Real Madrid had to do without their star player Karim Benzema in the derby, who was struggling with a calf muscle injury. The home coach decided to change the system of play in an important match and his team started with a “false nine”, which did not prove to be the right choice.

The change of formation was also challenged by the angry Belgian goalkeeper. “We’ll have to talk about the tactics internally, but it’s true that it didn’t work at the start of the game or in the second half,” Courtois questioned the strategy of the Italian coach, who took the defeat on himself.

“In the Cup we also played with a false nine and had almost no shots on target, just like yesterday,” he recalled of February’s loss to Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals of the Spanish Copa del Rey. Real Madrid had to do without their star goalkeeper Karim Benzema in that game as well.

Barcelona extended their unbeaten streak in La Liga to 12 matches and struck a deep blow to the hearts of the White Ballet fans. Even so, the Madrid club is 9 points ahead of second-placed Sevilla at the top of the La Liga table and even 12 points ahead of Barcelona. But the latter has an extra match to play, so the situation at the top of the Spanish league is getting interestingly tangled. Real Madrid have a tougher draw as they travel to Sevilla and Atlético Madrid before the end of the season.

Source: Goal