3 Areas for Raphael Varane to Improve on to Become a Real Madrid Great

La Liga was just kicking off and Real Madrid were preparing to take on Sporting Gijon on Spain’s north coast, when Marca made a declaration most agreed with: “It is Raphael Varane’s year.”

At the time it looked certain to be so. After four seasons of steady progression, the Frenchman who’d been lauded by Jose Mourinho, Didier Deschamps, Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane appeared poised to grab hold of one of Madrid’s centre-back posts for good in 2015-16, and when Los Blancos walked out at Estadio El Molinon to begin the campaign, there he was alongside Sergio Ramos. 

From the club and then-manager Rafa Benitez, it looked like a statement: This would be Varane’s year. 

Except it hasn’t worked out like that. Not at all. 

This has been a peculiar season for the 23-year-old. From the beginning he’s battled with form and continuity, seeing him oscillate between in-favour and out-of-favour. The constant chopping and changing of Madrid’s centre-back pairing due to the injury and form issues of Ramos and Pepe certainly hasn’t helped, but still this has felt like a season of stagnation for Varane. 

This is, after all, the player Mourinho described as “the best young central defender in the world,” but across the course of the campaign, Jose Gimenez at Atletico Madrid has looked more like the owner of that title. 

It’s left Varane in a curious position. For so long he’s been regarded as the next big thing, but here we are almost five years on from the day of his signing at Madrid, and still the “next” lingers. 

Here, then, we look at the areas in which Varane can make the biggest gains. 

Physicality Through Mentality

When assessing Varane’s indifferent season in 2015-16, it’s interesting to reflect on a comment he made during an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche (h/t Marca) last year: 

During my second year at Madrid, Jose Mourinho gave me a kick up the backside. I wasn’t doing well, I wasn’t managing to do what he wanted me to out on the pitch. So he chided me, saying, ‘Why don’t you run in training?’ My first reaction was to mutter, ‘Oh come on…’ But I knew he was right, I had more to give.

Mourinho doesn’t need to give long speeches. He’s direct and to the point. What he said to me was for my own good. Without regular pressure like that, I can tend to rest on my laurels.

Such a comment feels pertinent now. For much of the season, particularly recently, there’s been a …

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