Real Madrid’s woes: Keylor Navas a liability in goal, Karim Benzema not scoring and their miraculous late winners running out
Zinedine Zidane's men have slipped to second in La Liga amid poor results and season could be slipping away from them
REAL MADRID are struggling.
Yes, they enjoyed an incredible 40-match unbeaten run to storm ahead in La Liga — but a recent blip was always going to come.
During their astonishing period of invincibility, they failed to establish a significant lead at the summit.
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And they have now slipped below Barcelona into second place — albeit just a point behind with a game in hand — with Sevilla are just a point further back.
While, in the Champions League, they finished behind Borussia Dortmund in their group, to set up a tricky-looking last-16 tie against Napoli.
The Serie A side were flying prior to their first meeting, but lost 3-1 and have lost both domestic matches since.
So, it’s not been so much Real Madrid’s imperiousness, rather Napoli’s demise which puts them in pole position to reach the quarter-finals.
And their Copa del Rey bid came to a surprise end with defeat against Celta Vigo in the last-eight.
So where are the major issues?
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Conceding too many goals
The goalkeeping situation is a major issue.
Keylor Navas became somewhat of a cult hero last season, but this campaign, he had been at fault on several occasions – dropping some real clangers.
They have kept just seven clean sheets in 24 La Liga matches.
Navas was at fault for Napoli’s crucial away goal in the Champions League as well as Stevan Jovetic’s late winner for Sevilla which ended the long, unbeaten run.
The Costa Rican has already conceded the same amount of goals (25) in 31 games as he did in the whole of last season.
It is little wonder, then, that Real Madrid are aggressively pursuing Thibaut Courtois and David De Gea.
Midfield weakness
All the talk this season has been about Barcelona’s poor performances, but they have outscored Real Madrid in the league with 71 to Los Blancos’ 63.
While the Catalans have also conceded four fewer — with their goal being breached just 21 times to their rivals’ 25.
Real Madrid’s only arrival was Alvaro Morata from Juventus, after the club met the pre-arranged buy-back fee.
Zinedine Zidane acknowledged he needed more power in central midfield and decided with was Paul Pogba or nobody — with the Frenchman joining Manchester United.
An injury to the Brazilian saw Luka Modric and Toni Kroos pulled out of position.
And with a lack of defensive protection, Real Madrid were forced purely to outscore their opposition to secure victory as the concession of a goal was almost inevitable.
Reliance on late goals
They have earned ten points in the final ten minutes of matches, but that doesn’t even take into account the occasions in which they were more than a goal down.
Sergio Ramos, in particular, has proved efficient with a winner in the Uefa Super Cup, equaliser at the Nou Camp and then winner against Deportivo — all around the stoppage time mark.
But sooner or later, that run will end.
To be 3-1 down with three minutes remaining and earn a point is remarkable — but against Las Palmas at home, it’s still two valuable points dropped.
In the defeat at Valencia, they appeared to just expect a late goal.
Strikers aren’t scoring
Karim Benzema has scored just one goal in his last ten matches in all competitions — and the same amount in 12 La Liga matches.
Meanwhile, Morata has netted three times in his last five games, but has just one in 11 previous to that.
Cristiano Ronaldo has 25 but, aside from him, the goals have been shared out among the rest of the players.
And the tally has diminished.
Last season, they had scored 110, a year earlier it was 118 and in 2014, it was 104.
With 63 after 24 matches, they are way off getting anywhere near those tallies.
And now they will be without Gareth Bale following a red card against Las Palmas.