Real Madrid was still trying to digest the 10 minutes that left him on the edge of the abyss when Zinedine Zidane cleared the puzzle: Toni Kroos did not play against City by technical decision. In his attempt to surprise Pep Guardiola , the French baffled everyone, leaving out the man who marks the pulsations of his team. Not even when he saw it decompose in the second part did he use it. Zidane, who conquered the League and Champions three years ago with a great workforce management, can't find the point.

Zidane always likes to move the eleven. One fact: in 37 official matches, the Frenchman has already used 34 different lineups. Only twice has he repeated team on two nights in a row: against Galatasaray and Leganés, and in the two games of the Super Cup. Zidane distributes efforts trying to activate the largest number of players (16 exceeds 1,000 minutes this course), but there is still an eleven on which the team sits. In the League alone, 23 different players have started in at least three days.

Already entered the hot stretch of the season, the French accumulates work. He has not yet found the ideal companion for Karim Benzema , the Bernabéu is no longer a fort and the management of changes in recent games has not been successful. Too many doubts four days after receiving Barça in a duel that will mark the League.

Drought of '9'

It has been two seasons since Cristiano Ronaldo left and Madrid has not yet found who complements Benzema. The Frenchman is more scorer than fame gives him, but less than what a first white sword needs. The Frenchman responded more than at the beginning of the season, but in recent weeks the tap has dried up: he has only scored two goals in the last 13 games.

The goal of Madrid depends on Benzema. He has scored 18 points and has distributed nine others. In total, he has participated in 27 of the 55 goals of his team. He is the top scorer and assistant, well above the seven goals added by Rodrygo and Sergio Ramos . If it fails, there is no one to take the witness.

Eden Hazard had to untangle everything. He has goal, overflow and last pass. As the scenario asks, it can be a lethal partner or free verse that breaks the monotony in which the team so often falls. The few times he had continuity he had begun to weave a very promising society on the left with Benzema and Kroos. But it is his absence it has been discovered that there was no plan B. That it was wrong to think that it was Bale, a player who has been disconnected from the club for too long (only three goals this year, none in the League for half a year), or that he was unsuspecting Imagine it would be Vinicius . The Brazilian left great actions against City, but the goal is not yet among its virtues. He is an extraordinary dribbler and only that makes him necessary in this Madrid without changing gears, but the lack of alternatives has placed him on a level of demand that is not yet his.

Errors that take their toll

That lack of fang has left more wounds as soon as the team has lost the defensive security it reached between December and January. The Royal Society gave a good account of the eleven so reckless that Zidane took in Copa del Rey, the Celta took gold from the defensive errors and the City, beyond those fateful 10 minutes, completely unraveled what not so long ago was a wall .

Weighs, in stumbling blocks like those, some absence of Casemiro (missed against the Real), the cracks that Marcelo has always left or the field that Luka Modric no longer covers. The Croatian has recovered a remarkable level in recent games, but the body can no longer support it throughout the match. Hence also that Kroos's absence was even more surprising. Errors that have taken their toll. Arguments such as withdrawing Vinicius when he was the only one who worried the defense of the City or bet on the big nights for Bale when he was removed from the team every day.

The tonic is disturbing: of the 17 games that Real Madrid has played at the Bernabéu, it has only won nine. Of the last three, he has lost two and tied one. Alarm signals at the worst possible time.

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Know more

  • Zinedine Zidane
  • Real Madrid
  • Real society
  • Gareth Bale
  • Pep Guardiola
  • Sergio Ramos
  • Toni Kroos
  • Marcelo
  • Luka modric
  • Karim Benzema
  • Eden Hazard
  • Cristiano Ronaldo
  • First division
  • Champions League
  • sports
  • football

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