Mijatovic rips into Madrid's 'old ghosts' and questions Mbappé's leadership credentials
Former Real Madrid star Predrag Mijatovic didn't hold back after the Benfica defeat, highlighting the team's complacency and lack of leadership in the dressing room.
Former Real Madrid striker and sporting director Pedja Mijatovic has delivered a scathing assessment of the club’s current predicament following their Champions League humbling against Benfica.
‘Old ghosts’ returning to haunt Los Blancos
Speaking on Spanish radio programme ‘El Larguero’, the Montenegrin didn’t mince his words about Madrid’s troubling 4-2 defeat, expressing how he was left “sad, but above all quite worried” by what he witnessed.
Mijatovic pointed to a dangerous mentality creeping into the squad, suggesting this isn’t a new problem but one that’s been festering since last season:
“Madrid has fallen into this dynamic of ‘it doesn’t matter’, ‘we’ll improve later’… and that in football is extremely dangerous,” he warned.
The 57-year-old believes these complacent attitudes have returned to haunt the team, drawing parallels with issues that surfaced under both Xabi Alonso and Carlo Ancelotti previously.
Leadership vacuum at the Bernabéu
Perhaps most interestingly, Mijatovic diagnosed what he sees as the fundamental issue plaguing Real Madrid right now - a critical lack of leadership:
“I believe Real Madrid lacks a leader, not just a player who makes the difference. I don’t see a leader who says ‘what the bloody hell are we doing?’”
He referenced past captains like Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Karim Benzema, Fernando Hierro and Raúl as the type of commanding presence currently missing from the dressing room.
And in a particularly pointed assessment of the club’s marquee signing, Mijatovic suggested: “Mbappé is a great footballer, but he’s not a leader. Goals don’t convert Mbappé into a leader.”
Players, not management, in the firing line
Rather than blaming Florentino Pérez or the coaching situation, Mijatovic aimed his criticism squarely at the players themselves. He questioned their attitude and application, noting how they lose possession and “act as if they were the best in the world and as if nothing happened.”
He described witnessing symptoms of “relaxation” under new coach Álvaro Arbeloa, despite his Madrid DNA and knowledge of the club, suggesting the problems run deeper than the dugout.
“I don’t see the spark and I don’t see anything,” concluded the man who scored the winner in the 1998 Champions League final, painting a bleak picture of the current squad’s mentality.
For a club that’s dominated European football in recent years, it seems the bread and butter of consistent performance is becoming their Achilles heel.