Decoding the reasons behind Gareth Bale's struggles at Real Madrid this season

Luka Modric’s injury-enforced absence

Modric’s absence has hurt Gareth Bale’s form badly

Gareth Bale’s agent claimed the other day that his client isn’t passed enough and that has hurt his form. To an extent, he is right. The Croat Modric is the Real Madrid player blessed with great vision and it is his incisive passing that helped Real break open stubborn defenses and enabled Gareth Bale to have a good season.

The two were Spurs’ star men during their time together there and wreaked havoc as a pair. Modric’s passing and Bale’s speed and directness complemented each other more than nachos and melted cheese and the former’s elegant passes were almost always seized upon by the Welshman.

Real Madrid’s 22-game winning run saw Gareth Bale being really effective for at least two-thirds of that period. But the last 4-6 games of the winning run were less than impressive.

Follow a pattern here? When Luka Modric was playing, Bale was at his best and the BBC was full-functional. But after Modric got injured and Isco came in to fill for him, the right-side of the famous trident became sluggish.

Both these men possess telepathic understanding. The little Croatian knows beforehand where Bale will run and the latter knows a single frame earlier as to where the former’s pass will arrive. After Modric got injured, Bale lost the guy who could read him and his movements the best and that hurt his form.

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Boos from the crowd a confidence killer

Boos from the crowd have not helped Bale’s cause

And finally, the confidence-hampering jeers from the people who they call his own. Fans at the Bernabeu are known to be among the toughest to please. Time and time again, they have shown their ruthlessness when it comes to criticizing their own players.

Someone like Zidane – and now Casillas – has had to endure the poison spewn by them and Gareth Bale is no exception.

It doesn’t matter that he was bought for €100 million. It doesn’t matter that he scored the winning goal in both the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. The only thing that matters is that he is not playing too good and they are allowed to boo him for that because they have paid for the tickets of the match.

This treatment from the fans has left the Welshman in a state of delirium. He was never treated like this by his own fans at either Spurs or Southampton, but now he has been subjected to very severe criticism – and that too after becoming a star.

This has hampered his confidence to a huge level and sometimes it feels like he is too scared to get a touch of the ball because he knows that he will be booed the moment he receives it.

The curtains are almost down. Bale has had a poor season, so have Madrid. The only possibilities from here on are that he either stays and proves himself or goes to another club, away from the ungrateful bunch of fans that boo him week-in and week-out.