The Real Madrid Conundrum: Dismal attacks, abysmal and a desolate defence

Zinedine Zidane wasn’t the greatest coach tactically either. Real Madrid’s poor league display last season is hidden due to their European success. Lopetegui has been at the club for just over four months and it is just too early to judge and sack him.

The grave mistake that Lopetegui is making is trusting Mariano too much rather than giving Asensio a start. This was a must-win for Madrid and he should have gone in with a strongest 11, choosing to rotate on another day. He tries to build the team around Isco which is another major error.

The attacking seems to be the biggest problem for Real Madrid. They are lacking attempts from open play. Real Madrid should be breaking apart opposing defences with inch-perfect through balls and quick one-two passes. Instead, they are trusting on set pieces and headers.

With talented midfielders like Isco, Modric and Kroos at disposal, Real Madrid of all teams is lacking creativity. It seems Karim Benzema is back to his usual self, being scoreless in his last 4 games. Gareth Bale has hardly showcased his pace to exploit the defences. This is not attacking at the very least.

Midfielders should control the game and be a cover for defenders while creating opportunities. Luka Modric’s favouritism towards Ballon d'Or 2018 will take a big hit due to his abysmal start to the new season. He is talented, belongs to the same pool of players as Xavi and Pirlo, yet his performances haven't been up to the mark.

He had a good performance against Roma in the Champions League. Barring that, his league performances have been underwhelming, his performance against CSKA was below par. This clearly isn’t a Luka Modric that showed up at the World Cup. Toni Kroos has been even worse. He caused the terrible back-pass against CSKA, very poor in his creation as well. Once Isco was injured Real Madrid looked out of sorts to create.

Defence is perhaps the biggest strength that Real Madrid possesses. The way Madrid was broken apart by Levante is unforgivable to the Madrid defence. One clean through ball put Morales behind the defence of Varane, Ramos and Marcelo.

If Real aren’t aware of these sneaky balls by a team like Levante, they just can’t expect to face the through balls by Kevin De Bruyne and Lionel Messi. Defenders like Varane and Ramos are expected to deal with high looping balls well. Their complacency caused them against Alaves as they let Manu Garcia pounce on the corner in the final moment.

The Madrid defence has been awful this season

The only shining spot so far seems Isco and his injury stopped all the momentum of Real Madrid dead on tracks. The players are down on confidence and this is not a mentality that a team needs ahead of an El Clasico. Players went out and said they play together as a team without Ronaldo.

They did show promise but when we look at the chances missed by Ramos and Bale today, it has to be said that they are missing a clinical finisher who is hungry for goals. Real Madrid might have needed to feed Ronaldo a lot last season but it was a win-win situation for both the team and the player.

Nobody in Real Madrid is showing the intent to score that Cristiano so badly had. Real Madrid wasn’t a one-man team even them but they had a proven goal-scorer at the ready.

Julen Lopetegui has to sort out a few things. He has to get the midfield together again, doesn’t matter if it is by resting his regular midfielders and giving a shot to Ceballos and Isco a shot at the game. His regular defenders have started each and every game, he can take a chance against Plzen to rest either of Varane or Ramos.

Mariano Diaz hasn’t been on a great form and clearly isn’t up to the standards that Real Madrid expects him to be. He should be playing on a much better level against teams like Levante and hopefully, Lopetegui can mentor him well.

Real Madrid clearly should have gone for a top-class striker in the summer window. They lost a goal-machine in Ronaldo and they let go of the talented Borja Mayoral. This is coming back to haunt them.

If we know Fiorentino Perez well, Lopetegui’s sack is arriving sooner than later, with managers like Arsene Wenger and Antonio Conte looking for a job. This team might be under one of them soon. Lopetegui might be the catalyst to success in the long run but Perez won’t have that much of a patience.

Fiorentino clearly missed a trick when he didn’t sign a proper striker and probably get rid of Benzema. Lopetegui’s biggest mistake is depending on Isco too much just like he did at the national team. Isco isn’t a guy who you build a team around, he is too young for it. It takes his freedom away.

So who can we blame for this abysmal performance? Perez? Lopetegui? The players? Everyone has an equal role in the downfall of the team. This team isn’t performing the best and this isn’t how they performed under Zidane. Perez just went too ahead trying to copy Barcelona’s transfer policy and bringing in only Vinicius, Mariano and Odriozola while he could really have gone all out for Timo Werner and Benjamin Pavard.

Real Madrid will be trying to get back on track soon. Whether Lopetegui gets the sack before the Clasico or whether Perez waits till the Clasico result remains to be seen. While it is the Madridistas who suffer from seeing their team in complete shambles while still having the best talents in Europe.