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#2 Poor La Liga defence
Although Real handsomely beat Barcelona during the Spanish Super Cup, Ronaldo was handed a 5 game suspension following his red card in the 1st leg. This incident turned out to be too hot to handle for the Merengues, which was evident during the initial stages of the 2017-18 league season.
During Ronaldo's absence, the attack looked blunt at times, and even after Ronaldo's return, his form took an unexpected nosedive, which resulted in Madrid dropping crucial points against minnows such as Girona. To make things even worse, Zidane persisted with the same 4-4-2 diamond formation despite Isco's loss of form, which affected Ronaldo's efficiency as an attacker, since he relied on his off-the-ball movement to get in good goal-scoring positions.
Things reached the absolute climax when Barcelona demolished Real at the Santiago Bernabeu. This was their 3rd loss even before the Christmas break, which was the exact same number of games that the team lost during the entire 2016-17 season. That loss was the ultimate nail in the coffin for the Blancos, which virtually ended their title defense.
