Athletic Bilbao 0 – 0 Real Madrid – Three Takeaways from the La Liga draw

Real Madrid only managed to pick up a single point after a frustrating draw away to Athletic Bilbao. Here are three key takeaways from the match.

Real Madrid threw away their shot

Just a few weeks ago, it looked like Barcelona were notching an insurmountable lead in the hunt for the La Liga title. Then, a draw against Valencia last week allowed Madrid to claw a few points back. Real Madrid finally had an opportunity to come within six points of Barcelona after Messi et al drew against Celta Vigo at home this matchweek.

But it was not to be. Madrid had an opportunity, and they wasted it. Looking a far cry from the young, scrappy, and hungry 2016-17 side which won the La Liga/Champions League double, Real Madrid decisively threw away their shot to bring the La Liga title back within realistic contention.

I wrote following Barcelona’s draw with Valencia that Madrid still had a mountain to climb. In that article, I discussed how Madrid’s problem isn’t just that Barcelona are putting together results, it’s that Madrid don’t look like they’re any good right now. In order to have a shot at La Liga, Madrid have to capitalize on every single mistake Barcelona makes. They had a chance to do that on Saturday, and they failed miserably.

Sergio Ramos’ red card reputation isn’t cute anymore

Sergio Ramos may have been wearing a Batman mask (OK, it’s a carbon fiber facial protection mask, but it LOOKS like a Batman mask!) but on Saturday, he played the role of villain for Real Madrid.

Ramos picked up an early yellow card for a pretty obvious elbow as he jumped up and over an Athletic player. For the most part, Ramos remained disciplined, although when his temper flares up and he begins protesting against other players and the referee, you always have to worry that his second yellow isn’t far behind.

In the 86th minute, Ramos leapt over Athletic’s Aduriz with his arm extended, and clattered lightly into Aduriz’ face. To be fair to Ramos, there really wasn’t much in this challenge. Aduriz definitely sold the contact.

But as you can see in the picture above, Ramos gave Aduriz quite a bit to work with in selling the foul. With Ramos already on a yellow card, it was stupid for Real Madrid’s captain to lead with his elbow.

Ramos then had to hand the captain’s armband over to Marcelo, and head to the locker-room for an early shower. Madrid were down to ten men with about seven total minutes left in the match to play, counting added time. If they had an opportunity to claw their way back in added time, Sergio Ramos certainly made that task much more difficult. In fact, you could see Madrid beginning to be stretched thin during added time, nearly leading to an opportunity for Bilbao at the other end.

With that, Sergio Ramos has made history as La Liga’s #1 Red Card earner, having recorded 19 total red cards in his career. Madrid fans often like to joke about the Janus-faced nature of Sergio Ramos. On the one hand, he is Real Madrid’s goal-scoring savior, the man who kept Madrid’s La Decima hopes alive with his headed goal, and did the same time and time again last season in the La Liga title hunt. On the other hand, Sergio Ramos is about as likely to get a red card as he is a game-winning goal.  He often performs these acts of stupidity in the middle of Madrid’s toughest patches of the season, leaving his teammates to clean up the aftermath of the mess he has created.

However, the allure of Ramos’ enduring Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde routine is starting to wear thin. When Ramos is banging in game-winning goals left and right, it’s easy to tolerate the occasional red card. But lately the heroics have dried up, and while Ramos has been a relatively steadfast defender for Madrid this season, he has not done anything spectacular to justify his bone-headed mistakes. Having a lion-hearted captain to lead the team doesn’t mean much when he’s not on the pitch.

The problems at Real Madrid run deep

For a while this season, it looked like Real Madrid were playing well, but simply not finishing their chances. Madrid had been massively underperforming their expected goals statistics. That means that Madrid were creating good chances, but that their strikers (particularly Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo) were unlucky when it came to converting those opportunities into goals. Typically when a team is underperforming their underlying statistics, you can expect things to level out a bit, and the goals to start falling.

Well, that hasn’t happened yet. As good as potential Real Madrid goalkeeping target Kepa was on Saturday, Madrid’s finishing was poor. Cristiano Ronaldo is still stuck on two La Liga goals for the season. And Benzema continues to provide further evidence for Gary Lineker’s claim that the Frenchman is an overrated striker.

But the problem for Madrid isn’t just that they aren’t converting goals. In this match, Madrid did not dominate the xG statistics. To the contrary, the xG suggests that a draw is exactly what Madrid deserved. Madrid took 19 shots, eight shots more than Bilbao, but managed a nearly identical xG. That means that many of Madrid’s shots were of poor quality.

Additionally, Madrid seems increasingly porous in the midfield. Ramos and Varane are often called upon to save Los Blancos after teams pass through Madrid’s midfield with ease. Add to that the fact that Madrid’s goalkeeping has been uncertain at best this season, and you’ve got a team that’s bound to let in a ton of goals this season.

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Serious questions need to be asked about Zidane’s tactical setup right now. Madrid’s midfield looks lost. Isco is being called upon to be a jack-of-all-trades, but as a result is looking more like a master of none. Modric and Kroos are still doing amazing Modric and Kroos things, but there’s no clear idea right now of how those skills can translate into either offensive fluidity or defensive stability.

And with Bale seemingly perpetually injured, the strike partnership of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema is just not working out. Observe the passing and placement network in the above Tweet. Yes, Benzema and Ronaldo were both fairly involved in the match. But there is very little connection between the two players. CR7 and Big Benz are getting touches, but they’re not playing the ball to one another. That probably means that Madrid are doing well to get the ball in from out wide, but once it gets into the middle, play either stops or results in a shot which is missed or saved.

Zidane has a bunch of problems to solve. The question remains whether he can figure out everything that’s currently ailing Madrid. He’s going to have to do that soon, or the impatient fans at Madrid will begin calling for his head.

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