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Real Madrid have seemingly gone back to their miserable state in just weeks after Zinedine Zidane taking charge at the club. Many of the club faithful have held high hopes for the 46-year-old who led them to 3 consecutive Champions League trophies in previous seasons.
Perhaps, Zidane is in the wrong to rush back to take charge of one of the weakest Madrid teams in their history. The Los Blancos's gradual decline is clearly noticeable in their last 3 games under the French manager.
Here are the major reasons for what's going wrong in this unfortunate club.
#1 No reliable goalkeepers
Florentino Perez might have thought that Thibaut Courtois' transfer would be the bargain of the season. The Belgium shot-stopper had just won his golden glove award for his impressive display at the World Cup before joining the Spanish side.
Real Madrid snapped him for just €35 million last August when the player's market value stood at €68 million-high. However, he has now turned to be a scapegoat at the club as he has produced several goalkeeping mistakes. Courtois' future has also seemed bleak following Zidane's second appointment.
Keylor Navas has also been unable to save the Spanish side this season. Many of the Madrid faithful had labeled him as a hero due to his display at the latter stages of last season's Champions League.
Under Zidane, he has started for the club again after being regularly benched by the previous managers. Unfortunately, the Costa Rican has only managed to keep a single clean sheet in his last 5 matches while starting for the Spanish giants.
#2 Non-performing wingers
The fact that Real Madrid are badly missing Cristiano Ronaldo has now become clear as day. The Los Blancos have lost a 'guarantee of 50 goals per season' following the Portuguese's departure to Juventus.
Zidane and previous coaches have rotated heavily between Isco, Vinicius Junior, Marco Asensio, Gareth Bale, and Lucas Vazquez on the flanks without finding much luck. Interestingly, the total combined league goals of the 5 mentioned players are still less than Ronaldo's.
The Portuguese megastar has found the net 19 times this season while the 5 Real Madrid wingers have only managed to score 15 goals combined so far. The Los Blancos have been relying heavily upon Karim Benzema whose goals are less than half of Lionel Messi's.
#3 Woeful defense
Real Madrid's attacks might have submerged massively due to Ronaldo's departure but their equally shambolic defense has also become the main contributing factor to their downfall. Even without Ronaldo, the Los Blancos could have salvaged significantly more wins had their defense not been this fragile.
The Spanish giants have conceded more goals than several midtable La Liga teams such as Leganes and Real Sociedad so far. They have recorded very embarrassing losses this season including the 5-goal hammering by Barcelona in La Liga and losing by 4 goals to Ajax in the Champions League.
The Real Madrid fans constantly blame the miserable Marcelo for the shameful defensive record but both Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos have to shoulder a huge part of the criticism as well.
