The sins of Real Madrid: broken from the front, broken from behind

After the defeat against Alavés, Zidane regretted that Real Madrid had not known how to "change the dynamics" to lift the game.

"It bothers me and worries me," he conceded, and he has reasons, because of the six times he has been behind on the scoreboard he has only saved one victory (playing with one more) and a draw.

The Frenchman cannot find an explanation for the bad moment of a team that has lost its identity.

Little remains of the defensive strength with which he won the last league and even less of that bench depth with which he has won his two league titles.

The castle, already flimsy, shakes little by little the less usual enter.

The collapse is more evident in defense, where Courtois has gone from winning Zamora to conceding more than one goal per game.

In the final stretch of last year, the white team competed with overwhelming regularity thanks to a solidity behind that it does not have today.

The image of

against Alavés, giving instructions to his teammates from the stands, explained some problems.

On the one hand the injuries, because

is the only one of those behind who has not yet gone through the infirmary;

on the other, that without the captain, in the process of renewal, there is no one to assume command.

The French central defender does not finish, who after a great game in Milan was again irregular against Alavés.

does not succeed

, the signing -in exchange for 50 million euros- that had to cover the hole in the left center.

Neither can

.

Nor has Ramos been at his best when he has been available and neither the full-backs, except for

or a couple of tasks by

, have stopped the bleeding.

The Mestalla, although exaggerated, was significant: of the four defenders, three committed penalties and the fourth scored an own goal.

Almost nothing.

Nor is

at the brilliant level of last season.

If we take the statistics of "expected goals after shooting" from Football Reference (PSxG), which measures how many goals a team should have conceded according to the chances of the opponent, last season the Belgian was the fourth most effective goalkeeper in the League (+ 2.8).

This is only eleventh.

Against Alavés, he alternated big saves with big errors, including the gift to

that ended up costing his team two points.

Courtois laments after conceding a goal against Alavés.

A 'short' template

The Real Madrid squad is a long way from the very deep wardrobe with which they won the League in 2017, but with wickers very similar to last year, performance is also being inferior.

Everything that deviates from the eleven type causes the structure to suffer, and the maintenance of the commitment to rotations by

is something that is least understood in the offices.

A replacement is still missing for

, and neither the job of the double pivot

or the deployment of

manage to replace him.

And except for Lucas Vázquez, there is someone who gives intensity to the pressure in the opposite field when Mendy or the Uruguayan are not there.

If any of these pieces are not in place, the deficiencies in defense are exposed.

Few pieces of the bench provide solutions.

misses the door,

still locked in his head, Isco was lost to the cause and

, who has solutions in his pocket, physical problems are holding him back.

For

the most devastating fact remains: the Brazilian is the only one who has played in the 10 league losses since Zidane returned to the bench.

The problem is especially worrisome in a season in which the schedule (and the injuries) are going to force to throw of bottom of closet.

Lowest goalscoring average since 99/00

Without defensive solidity, control of the games or rotations that work, Real Madrid has no way to compensate for the lack of gunpowder and the imbalance that it has suffered since

.

Against Huesca,

showed what a player like this changes the board, but the Belgian is suffering a martyrdom with injuries.

Against Alavés he suffered the seventh since he arrived.

The Belgian will carry out the tests on Monday that will determine the real extent of the injury and the time of absence.

And so the whites only score 1.6 goals per game, their

.

Saturday's was the seventh setback in 14 games and the third in a row in the League, where he has only added one point from the last nine, and seven from the last 18. They are the same as Barcelonaa, who have not started well either, and a world less than Atlético, which has made it full in those six days, which still does not know what it is to lose in the league, and which already leads the whites by six points with one game less.

To top it off, December comes with curves: in the next two weeks, Real Madrid visit

(next Saturday at 4.15 pm) and host

, with two vital Champions League games in between.

That, the victory in Milan in the Champions League, is what has allowed the team to catch some air in a competition that did not look good until last Wednesday.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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