Of course, I never rated Stegen to begin with.
But the thing is Lucho knew he couldn't control the South American gang up front for long. In that sense, I preferred the cold professionalism of Benzema, Ronaldo, and Bale. I think it was a thing Ronaldo said at the time, that they are not friends, but when it's time to play they do their jobs because they are pros. I liked that more.
With talent alone, you never achieve your goals. It should have been MSN to win 3 CLs in a row, but it was Madrid's trio that did it. There's a reason for that. Basically talent and fooling around without hard work and order doesn't get it done. Not saying MSN didn't work hard, but they just weren't at the required level of professionalism and discipline to really complement each other well on a tactical level. I'm sure Lucho had a very tough time getting them to respect his instructions and by the end, they pretty much did what they wanted on the field without much sense.
Normally a team containing MSN can't score 0 goals vs Juventus in 180 mins, when Madrid fecking scored 4 in a single game.
Joga Bonito Amigo stuff may work amazing to smash Getafe and the likes, but in CL you have to bring up a sharper level and more tactical discipline. And they fell flat after 2015.
Neymar, Messi, Suarez, these are not really such dream players for a manager to direct as much as it's made out. They cause many problems. All 3 are problematic characters who tend to do what they want at the expense of the team's stability.
