Despite their last 2-1 win against Alaves, I can't help feeling Real season is in danger, the team doesn't score as many goal, their defense have never been so exposed recently, they are also plagued with injury and ban. Even in their last game, it was actually one of the new recruit, Ceballos who saved them by scoring two... Can't help feeling this season is not going to go as smoothly as the last one. I just hope Perez don't try to sack Zidane or anything like that, it would break my heart. What do you guys think about it all? Will this current poor form continue and if it does, will it lead them to spend more in the coming transfers windows?

3 months have passed and I'm starting to lose hope that Madrid will bounce back. In fact, the situation has gotten worse than before. With La Liga gone, the CL becomes the priority but they'll be facing PSG. We know how deadly PSG's attack has been so far, and the way that Madrid has been playing right now I just don't see how they can knock out PSG. I don't even see it as a close tie anymore tbh.

So, similar to Emobot's initial question, can Madrid turn it around before they face PSG and stand a chance against them? Or is this a wrap up and just get better for next season?

Uhmn it's getting really interesting now.

Provide the profiles they have, and or nothing, or die situation... they would put all in into CL... they could be extremely dangerous. Remember Chelsea a while back??

They can forget about La Liga, it's a long run and they can't control it. CL is however, still in their hand, but yeah, they would face the hardest test ATM named PSG (next to MC).

I dont think they can though

Will be thrilling.

PSG has been playing against lower-caliber opposition. They split against Bayern, who's really the only elite side they've faced this year. Real won't be favorites, but to be pessimistic about it is giving not enough credit to people like Zidane and Ronaldo imo.

PSG is really good but I doubt they are the favorite in such a game, their defense isn't really anything special, their midfield isn't superior to that of Real either and their attack while one of the best in europe can be twarthed by even weak opposition if they do everything to stop them from combining and defend in number. Beside, an injury to Neymar, Cavani or M'bappe and their foward force is a lot less lethal.

At the end of the day, the game will depend on the form of the teams and their motivation imo.

Their done for now. RIP Madrid, 1902 - 2018

The argument of Chealsea winning the league because of not playing Champions league sounds too shallow, those same players won the league while playing Champions league as well when Mourinho came back and then they all started to boycott Mourinho in the next season, ugly stuff but it did happen.
Conte is a master of his craft, he totally reformed the formation, playstyle and most players, part from Diego Costa that didn't go along with him, it's far from just of the factor that Chelsea didn't play Champions League that season.

My point is that even if Real Madrid is out of the La Liga title run, it doesn't mean that they will suddenly be capable of doing magical stuff in Champions League, I wrote 4 months ago that I find it impossible that they win for the third time in a row CL and I still think so, I mean cmon...PSG looks far more dangerous in attack and their defense is really not worse compared to Real Madrid's defence.

There was some stats claiming that Real Madrid concided third of their total goals on the side of Marcelo, on top of that Carvajal isn't playing well either.

@Golazo Well, for Carvajal defense, he barely got time to get back into the game, after his sickness. As for Marcelo, I'm not suprised, he is very good and quite complete but he sometime work too hard in offense and let space to the opposing winger.

I do agree that PSG offense look much better than Real... most of the time that is. All Real need to stand a chance is a bit of brillance from Ronaldo and Bale (slowly looking much better) and they could well give PSG one of their biggest challenge yet.

Marcelo's defense this season has been terrible.

Carvahaj too, he has made far too much mistake.

Real mid has always been key to their success, but they havent produced much magic this season. I dont think Ronaldo has ever produced any magic, he is just siper clinical, but to do that he needs space and a good mid. Not his fault because like everyone indicated, he has evolved his role to be a siper poacher. Ronaldo played center for a couple of games and its a no go. He needs to be free from the wing.

With that, Benzema is terrible, but again, when he is totally shit no one create space for Real's wingers. His role is not purely to score, but to create spaces.

@tuan_jinn Obviously, the team are fatigued because of the two back to back CL campaign (that were both most lengthy). I think the best way to understand is to see which player thrive the most and those that aren't up to their standard. Bale for example was injured a lot in last two year and missed most game, now that his condition is more steady, he is doing much better. The player at Madrid who play most game in CL and in La Liga however are obviously not as consistent and as good as they should. What worry me is if they keep this up, will they be exhausted in world cup? It would be really sad if that were to happen cause they got so many important international player.

Ronaldo didn't produce any magic, ever? Now now lets not get carried away, their mid can produce whatever they want but if there is no player to score it wont matter.

I mean Ronaldo carried the whole team for a long time,without him they don't have a player to win games with, once he is out of scoring form nobody else is there to step up.

That's called clinical, lethal, or scoring machine...

in the world of football they need both: people to create chances and people to finish them...

Ronaldo didn't carry his team, he carries the scoring part, and because of his scoring they are in a whole lot higher level.

And for him to score, Real has the whole squad behind it to serve that.

To be the champ, every team needs all of those, and for Real now, their lower part is not functioning well.

That's making magic too since without him making goals Real wouldn't have seen 20% of their titles these years.
You can have a Kroos that is the best midfield player in the world but if there is nobody to score a goal he won't win you the game, he himself admitted that and this season when Ronaldo isn't scoring nobody else is there to take over, last season Ronaldo carried Real to La liga and CL title at 31 years of age, that season alone was magical in every sense of the word.

@Golazo Disagree about Ronaldo being the only one who score goal, its true he was the one who scored nearly all their important goal in last CL but if he wouldn't have been there, pherhap other would have stepped up more. Not saying they would have still won it without him but obviously, the best finisher of a team is more likely to score goal. Anyway, if what you say is the truth and that no one other than Ronaldo could score goal for Real, then they wouldn't be fourth in the Liga with 32 goal since Ronaldo only scored 4 of them. So yeah, while Ronaldo really make Real that much better, they are still very able to score goal without him in my opinion.

He scored 4 goals, and which other Real Madrid player scored more than that in La Liga?
I never said that nobody scores but that their problem is that Ronaldo is in a bad form and doesn't produce goals like he has been doing for the last 6 years and when he isn't doing it, nobody else is getting even close to his regular numbers.

@Golazo: Not saying the following statement is entirely true, but what do you think if there are people counter your point and say the alternative:

well, Ronaldo doesn't perform, is because the team behind him doesn't work as good anymore, he doesn't have those chances created for him! He is not the type to create, he is the super finisher.

Which indicate the opposite of what you said: Ronaldo carried the whole team. For the record, It doesn't downgrade his achievement because the finisher finishes the product. Which noone does better than him.

And if we must, This is similar to Messi when Barca at their prime, Messi was served by Xavi and Iniesta, he had the Ballon' Or, but he was NOWHERE the one who carried the team.

@Golazo Well, he is still very important, but what I'm trying to say is that his team-mate can still score goal if he isn't there. Real isn't the CR7 team where all the player give the ball to the guy and hope he score, its more than that, its all I'm saying. Not taking away from Ronaldo, he is certainly the best goalscorer in the world but still, this La Liga season hasn't been as good as it could for him as of now.

@tuan True, its a team effort and while Ronaldo is one of the best finisher, it doesn't help if he barely get the ball in a good position. So, if his team-mate don't provide him, then he won't score which in turn mean he couldn't make the difference for his team.

Ronaldo barely perfomrmes in La Liga, only UCL really.

Well it's no different with how any team works IMO, if a player is not playing well it affects others as well but it's not like Ronaldo was only good when the rest of the team was good, that sounds disrespectful.

I felt the same about the previous comment cause to simply say that he never ever created any magic, was that a serious comment or not?

While other people think that the rest of the team isn't playing well, I dare to blame Ronaldo.
He isn't playing well like he used to, he is their best player, biggest star and scorer and I think that even if the rest of the team are not playing well he should also take his own part of the whole responsibility for the bad form of the whole team.

Ronaldo isn't the same player he was before, he adapted himself in the squad a bit after losing pace due to age, last season he had a very slow start but came after the break very sharp and IMO he carried the team because he did score 42 goals in 46 games in total, even after that slow start and in the hardest part of the season as well...but he is now 1 year older as well so the start of the previous season was maybe a little hint of what is coming?

This season he scored 4 goals so far, nobody in Real Madrid in La Liga scored more than that but I think there are a few players that have the same number of goals scored.
Ronaldo has 13 goals in 19 games in total from La Liga and Champions League, in the FIFA Club World Cup he scored 2 goals in 2 games.

He started the season in the Spanish Super Cup coming in a a sub and scored after around 20 minutes but got banned for I think around 5 games so that also probably affected him.

His stats are still decent overall but I think he is playing worse compared to his previous seasons, maybe I'm wrong but I feel like he isn't as much a huge presence on the pitch anymore, but I'm not going to blame only him I just think that he is also to be blamed.

I think every player in the team is to blame. I dont know if its fatigue or what but this team with the exact same 11 as last season look way weaker. If you look back at the matches there are many individuals who could be blamed for mistakes that costed points. Casemiro being a lot weaker defensively along with Marcelo and Carvajal consistantly out of position on the counters. Ronaldo and Benzema missing chances.

I think most of the blame has to fall on Zidane. For starters he has lost a lot of trust in his players. Mostly avoiding squad rotation and fielding the exact same 11 often times not making a single sub till the final minutes. Also, he hasnt show much adaptation or development tactically to at least say he is looking for options to find a solution. Instead, he keeps betting on what worked last season but he hardly has the squad to do so.

@emo & @rai: thats exactly the point. In case of Real, the team brought success together as a machine, and failing together as its parts are failing. Noone carries the team, and no one take the whole blame.

Zidan, in this case indeed had the biggest blame. He hasnt showed his ability to adapt to the situation change yet, nor motivate his players in this bad time.

I have faith in him, though. They will bounce back.