Thibaut Courtois blasts Real Madrid after El Clasico defeat to Barcelona and questions Carlo Ancelotti’s tactics

Thibaut Courtois blasted Real Madrid’s ‘unacceptable’ El Clasico performance and questioned the tactics of manager Carlo Ancelotti after Barcelona secured an emphatic 4-0 win at the Bernabeu.

Former Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice on his El Clasico debut as Real Madrid suffered an embarrassing defeat at home to their arch-rivals.

Ferran Torres and Ronald Araujo were also on target for Xavi’s side, who as a result climbed to third in the La Liga table, 12 points behind leaders Madrid with a game in hand.

Real Madrid had won the previous five Clasicos but produced an abject display on Sunday and goalkeeper Courtois admitted it was an ‘unacceptable’ outcome.

‘Today we gave an unacceptable image for this club,’ Courtois told Movistar. ‘There are players missing, but you didn’t notice that it was them [Barcelona] who played on Thursday [in the Europa League]. 

‘They found a lot of space. We weren’t compact and weren’t able to keep the goals out. For the first goal, they anticipate better at the front post and we’re not switched on for the second either. 

‘After the break, we think we can come back, and after 10 seconds Ferran Torres is one on one with me.’

Courtois, 29, also questioned Ancelotti’s tactics after the drubbing and referenced the last time Madrid played with a false nine, in their 1-0 Copa dey Rey defeat to Athletic Bilbao in February.

The former Chelsea star added: ‘We will have to talk about the tactics internally. They haven’t worked at the start of the game or the second half, we have to discuss it internally, not here.

‘We played with a false nine in the Copa and hardly had any shots and it was the same here. We started okay, we had a chance with Fede Valverde which Marc ter Stegen saved well,