Woeful, wasteful, spineless, lethargic. These are just the few adjectives I am going to use to qualify Real Madrid's annoying and terrible loss to Levante, a team that was expected to be less of a threat to Real Madrid.
HOW IT HAPPENED..
Real Madrid saw the return of two of their best players, Marcelo and Isco from injury. The match against Levante was expected to be a walk-in-the-park for Real Madrid, hopes were high, fans turned out massively at Santiago Bernabeu, hoping to witness their team turnaround their torpid and pathetic display of late and give them something to cheer about. The match started with Real Madrid working on the flanks as usual, a known tactics of theirs, things were going normal until a sleepy and apparently languid Raphael Varane watched a ball like roll past him and to the opponent's striker running through his back, a very uninspiring and atrocious display from a player considered to be amongst the best defenders the world of football has ever seen. Levante's striker tipped the ball over the onrushing Thubiat Courtois and played it into the net to make it one for Levante.
Real Madrid continued their unimpressive flank to flank passing and movements with little penetration in the middle third, the right flank especially was out of sync as Odriozola and Lucas Vasquez combined very little to improve the attack of Real Madrid. The left flank was the only position that has positive movements, luckily because they had Marcelo doing the job there. Very few things were going right until the same sluggish Varane appeared to harbour the intentions of handling a ball rolling past him, "For a minute I thought Varane has lost it there". The referee called for a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area but after protests from Levante players, VAR(Video Assistant Referee) was called into the situation and a penalty was awarded to Levante afterwards. The penalty was converted and Real Madrid were 2 goals down.
The VAR played its part in issuing this loss to Real Madrid as a goal from Asensio, resulting from a Casemiro header was also declared offside and the morale and energy of the team sapped a little. Although Real Madrid never relented, they kept pushing for a goal and hopefully an equalizer, they hit the cross bar twice, had a penalty turned down and were wasteful in front of goal. Levante owe this win also to their Goal Keeper who did well to keep out most of Real Madrid's shots on goal. It wasn't until the 72nd minute that the brightest of Real Madrid's players today Marcelo fired into the net to make it 2-1. Real Madrid pushed for an equalizer but were unfortunate to get one. Another loss and another step closer to awarding the fans what they solely desire, "the sacking of Julen Lopetegui".
WHERE DOES THE PROBLEM LIE?
This is the fifth match Real Madrid has failed to win, losing four and drew 1. The question on the minds and lips of every football pundit or Real Madrid fan is "what exactly is Real Madrid's problem?"
So many fans are calling for Lopetegui to be shown the exit door while bringing back the absurd selling of Cristiano Ronaldo and saddening memories of the step down of a coach who made the team "ONE" and strong in belief. Truthfully, Real Madrid should have bought a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo, rather they decided to go for a goal keeper while believing in Bale and Benzema to do the scoring. Not a bad thing to do actually, but the team appear to be playing without a manager, they come out individually and play individually. If there is any tactics or strategy Lopetugui draws on the board before every match, it seems not to be implemented by the players as they are apparently still playing similar to how they played under Zidane. Could Lopetegui's tactics be the problem or the players' inability to play well??
MY THOUGHTS..
Real Madrid do well against elite teams, as evident against Roma and Atletico Madrid. Their losses has been against teams they felt they could beat as always, they come out playing a high line and get punished with slightest mistakes. I think Real Madrid needs to be cautioned by the coach to take every match serious, they should see a team like Levante as Barcelona and a team like CSKA Moscow as Bayern Munich..
I hope things get well for Real Madrid, I know it will..
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