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The summer of 2009 was one that changed the shape of football, although the impacts did not necessarily manifest themselves until years later, when Florentino Pérez embarked on a huge wave of spending to rebuild Real Madrid, but it was one that Manuel Pellegrini he felt he left his squad unbalanced.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká and Karim Benzema were the three highest-profile arrivals from Pérez’s first transfer window back to the club as president, while Pellegrini had been appointed as coach.
Despite criticism from the Chilean, he really enjoyed a positive season in which he set a club record of 96 points and 102 goals, it just so happened that he faced what is arguably the best Barcelona team in history. .
“We scored 102 goals with an unbalanced squad and with Ronaldo injured for three months,” Pellegrini explained in an interview with Movistar +
What ended any hope of continuity for Pellegrini was the elimination of the Champions League at the hands of Lyon in the first knockout round.
If the arrivals of Xabi Alonso, Álvaro Arbeloa, Esteban Granero and Ezequiel Garay are taken into account, the total disbursement in that summer was 258 million euros.
In terms of expenses, players like Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar were eliminated, with the irony that the first two would face each other in the 2010 Champions League final.
Javier Saviola, Gabriel Heinze, Alvaro Negredo, Dani Parejo, Javi Garcia, Miguel Torres, Fabio Cannavaro and Michel Salgado all left too.
Therefore, the template was composed like this:
Goalkeepers
Iker Casillas was the best goalkeeper in the world at the time, while his substitute was the Champions League champion, Jerzy Dudek. Antonio Adán was the third option.
Defenders
Pellegrini had at his disposal two right-backs in Sergio Ramos and Arbeloa and four centrals in Pepe, Raúl Albiol, Garay and Christoph Metzelder.
Marcelo was the only recognized left-back, but Arbeloa’s versatility ensured that he could play on both sides.
Midfielders
In the core area of the team, the former Villarreal coach had Alonso, Lassana Diarra, Granero, Fernando Gago, Mahamadou Diarra, Rafael van der Vaart, Guti and Royston Drenthe.
Forward
It was in attack that Los Merengues had their star names, with the attacking line essentially containing five big names, which would have been six if Ruud van Nistelrooy had not missed most of the first half of the season through injury.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Benzema, Gonzalo Higuaín and Raúl gave Pellegrini’s team headaches, although the Portuguese icon did miss two months, not the three that the Chilean coach suggests.
Kaká had his own fitness issues and struggled to settle in Madrid, while Raúl only played one game in the final month of the season.
It was a team with limited defensive resources but with a line of attack that rivals anything seen at the time.
Pellegrini acknowledged that he wanted both Robben and Sneijder to stay, but there was a glut of players in those areas.
Do you think Pellegrini’s Real Madrid squad was unbalanced?
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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