Five reasons Real Madrid is struggling

After four games without a win or a goal, Real Madrid is in crisis and Julen Lopetegui is in trouble. Here are five reasons why Madrid is struggling.

Real Madrid’s defeat to Deportivo Alavés is going to prompt a lot of reaction from the footballing world. Four games without a win or a goal is a crisis in Real Madrid land, especially with El Clasico peeping across the horizon.

Madrid’s root problem during this slump is quite obvious, they aren’t scoring any goals. The reason why is much more complex than you may think. Most journalists, pundits, and fans on social media are all going to have their own thoughts on why Real Madrid can’t score.

Some will be reasonable and astute, others will be agenda fueled and reactionary (sup Marcelo haters?), most of these opinions on their own, will be wrong.

There is no singular reason as to why Real Madrid is struggling to find the back of the net, instead, there are a number of factors that have all led Los Blancos to this point. Here are five I have identified so far.

Ronaldo’s absence

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Cristiano Ronaldo’s ex-team is almost never going to be better off without him. Ronaldo is one of the greatest strikers to ever play the game and remains one of the most productive forwards in Europe despite being nearly 34-years-old.

How much Ronahaveo would of helped Madrid during this slump is a mystery. The Portuguese forward has hit the ground running at Juventus with four goals in his first nine games for the Italians, however, that doesn’t mean he would have made the same start to the season at Madrid especially considering his start to last season.

However, the volume of shots Ronaldo takes per game and the small matter that he is a 50 goal a season man suggests that having him wouldn’t have hurt Madrid’s chances in the last four games.