Real Madrid’s Flop

By A. Balaji

Over the past few seasons, Real Madrid has been the team to beat, not only in the Spanish league but in the whole world. Los Blancos have pushed their limits every year with its numerous titles and achievements. The team, founded in 1912, has been recognized as the best team in the world multiple times. Throughout its long and victorious period this past year, they have conquered many tournaments (such as the Champions league) breaking record after record. They have won six Champions leagues and have, in total, 12 European Cup titles reigning as the most successful team in this competition. Besides their accomplishment in Europe’s most important tournament, the Galacticos have won six Fifa World Cups, 4 European Super Cups, 33 La Ligas, 19 Copas Del Rey and 10 Spanish Super Cups.
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It goes without saying that the Real Madrid’s squad is one of the best squads in the World. Their impressive quality players always make Real Madrid an admired team, while each player has accomplished numerous. Cristiano Ronaldo, the best footballer the world knows, has broken record such as last year when he levelled the fight for the Ballon d'Or with Leo Messi, acquiring his 5th one. This year the club has been having some setbacks, but most importantly on two sections in the field: The attack and the defence. The defence, especially the goalkeeper Keylor Navas, has been contested for not preventing a large number of goals they. Secondly, the attack, especially the striker Karim Benzema, have not scored enough goals this year. Therefore, these players are not proving to be the finishing masters as they were last year. Although this majestic squad has a rich winning history this season is proving to be quite the contrary. 

Real Madrid started on the 2017 – 18 season in flying colours winning against Barcelona in the Supercopa to claim their 10th one. However, the teams in the La Liga (Spanish National league) have been quite disastrous. At the moment the team is in 4th  with 4 losses and just 14 victories. Although losing is part of football, the Los Blancos have lost and drawn to teams who would have never won against them in their in dreams, such as the shocking losses of Real vs Betis and Real vs Girona. Besides being in an unfavourable position in the Spanish league, their worst enemy (Barcelona) is having a fantastic season; with a place in the Copa Del Rey (Spanish Cup) final and as leaders of the league with no losses. Real Madrid´s run in the La Liga this season have let many fans down as they hoped their run this year would be as successful as last year.​

The key to last years title run were the inspired and motivated players. Although the starting squad is the same as last years, there haven’t been many moments to cherish in this season. As mentioned before the Strikers have been having a spell of their own. A spell of hitting the ball to the crowd and missing the target every game. If we take in account their worst player at the time, Karim Benzema, out of barely 23 chances creates he has only made 3 goals with a shot accuracy of 35 %. These statistics are very poor for a striker for a world –class team. But the options of replacement do not match the requirements the team are needing, which brings me up to my second point. Real Madrid’s transfer deals were very poor compared to the top teams in Europe. Money is not the problem since they acquired tons of money by winning the La-Liga and Champions league and by selling top players in their squad, such as Morata and Pepe. However, they didn’t smartly spend. If we talk about their rivals, although Barcelona lost Neymar they still got Philippe Coutinho and Paulinho. Real Madrid merely acquired Theo Hernandez and Dani Ceballos. The lack of quality players on the bench is also explained by their injury frequency. Their main player, Bale, has hurt himself so many times it's not even possible to count. However all these links to the coach and as the team, the coach is also not having a good season. 

Zinedine Zidane, the most successful coach in Europe last season has had some difficulties commandeering this squad this year. Although Zidane is not completely to blame for this disappointing season so far, he had a say in the actions, and his choices haven’t been very successful. The Frenchman is not able to get the white team into their winning form again. Who knows, maybe it's his lack of inspiration or he fact he isn’t able to motivate his players anymore? But Critics say that his fixed mindset has been bringing so many failures. His adamant mind is why he always picks Benzema in the first team and causes frustration among the crowd. Zidane, you better buckle up and get your head in the game or else you will be staying at Madrid for a short Winter.​

All this negativity about Real Madrid’s season cannot make us forget about its current winning streak. The team seem to have picked up energy and a sign of life from the last reserves and are ready to fight for the only tournament available; The Champions League. We must not forget that Real Madrid have an extremely successful achievement in this league and I am sure they will give everything they have to win it this third consecutive time. In conclusion, we simply shouldn’t forget about the history this team. They might have encountered some speed bumps but they are a team which simply can’t be doubted as they are still on the leaderboards of the teams to beat.​