What has gone wrong at Real?

MADRID. — Approaching the midway point in the Spanish La Liga football season, Real Madrid are in an unthinkable position. But what has gone wrong at Real? Outside of the top four and 10 points behind leaders Barcelona, Santiago Solari’s side suffered their sixth defeat in 18 La Liga games on Sunday, going down 2-0 at home to mid-table Real Sociedad.

To put that into context, they lost just six games in the entire 2017-18 season, and just three the season before as Zinedine Zidane led them to the La Liga title.

Ronaldo-sized hole
“Cristiano is a champion, he’s part of our history, he’s ours, we do not miss him because he’s a player of ours and will always be part of our history even if now it plays for Juventus,” said Solari in November.

Very sentimental, but the cold hard fact is Real Madrid have lost 45 goals a season.

His peak years may be behind him and financially Real needed to sell, but there is a huge Ronaldo-sized hole in their attack, and more importantly, their attitude.

Their goals-per-game ratio is 1.44 this season compared with 2.47 last season, and they’re having less shots and shots on target per game, too.

After years of playing the bridesmaids, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema are now centre stage, but have just 11 La Liga goals between them this season. Goals are not coming from elsewhere, either; Sergio Ramos is the team’s joint second-highest scorer with four.

“We can’t be crying for someone who didn’t want to be here” said Isco in October, but whether Ronaldo saw his long-term future at Real or not, during each 90-minute stint he was the leader Real are sorely missing.

Isco fall out
A fan favourite, Isco has been restricted to a fringe role since Solari took over from Julen Lopetegui in November.

Isco is yet to start a league game under Solari, and much was made of the 26-year-old’s apparent refusal to shake the coach’s hand in the dressing room after a humiliating 3-0 defeat by Eibar in late November, a loss Toni Kroos described as “the worst I’ve seen in my five years here.”

With Bale injured for Sunday’s game against Sociedad, all the pre-match talk was of Isco potentially starting and proving his worth. — Sky Sports.