At first it was a drama, but Real Madrid’s season has most definitely turned into a crisis now after Villarreal were the latest side to head to the Santiago Bernabeu and leave with all three points.
Some of the stats surrounding the game make remarkable reading too.
It was the Yellow Submarine’s first-ever victory in the stadium. For the third time this season, Real had 29 shots in the game but didn’t win it and for the first time in 10 years, they’ve lost two games at home consecutively.
The match was also the second in a row where Los Blancos haven’t found the net at the Bernabeu, and that hasn’t happened since 2006/07.
At the halfway point of the season, Zinedine Zidane’s side have 32 points. Rafa Benitez made way for the Frenchman having accrued five points more than Zidane at this stage of his managerial campaign.
Given the above, one has to pose the question as to whether the coach is living on borrowed time?
There’s only so far you can get by living on past playing glories, and even an incredible 2017 as a coach — Real’s best ever year in terms of trophies — will quickly be forgotten if the team continue in the same vain as they have since the start of the campaign.
With their top scorers on a pathetic four goals each, it’s not hard to identify the first part of the problem, but this is compounded by Zidane’s stubbornness and refusal to drop any of his strikers.
For weeks now, the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema have underperformed, but the coach has stoically defended them. Gareth Bale can be spared for he’s only just returned to action.
At first, this unending support was seen as precisely the reason why his squad were 100 per cent behind Zidane, but now players are beginning to break ranks.
Marcelo remarked recently that Real were ‘sunk,’ and after this most recent defeat, Toni Kroos added that the best the team could hope for was finishing in the top four. Both at odds with the Frenchman’s ‘everything will be ok’ mantra.
Frankly, it’s incredible that a team who not six months ago were being touted as one of the best ever, have been turned over at home by Real Betis, Villarreal and Barcelona, and held by lowly Numancia and Fuenlabrada.
The buck stops with the coach who appears unwilling, or perhaps unable, to stem the tide.
His tactical decisions have been baffling at times — Isco being dropped for El Clasico springs to mind — and not playing the likes of Dani Ceballos and Theo Hernandez makes little sense either.
Marcelo was again at fault for the winning goal on Saturday, only picking up speed in his run back when he realised he wouldn’t reach the ball before his opponent.
If we can see such rudimentary errors creeping in, why can’t Zidane?
Or if he can, why isn’t he doing anything about it?
Maybe the time is right for a change.
