Real Madrid: 3 people who must improve after loss to Cadiz

Real Madrid were incredibly disappointing on Saturday evening in their 1-0 loss to Cadiz. With Barcelona on the horizon, these three players must step up.

Cadiz pulled off the upset, embarrassing Real Madrid on their own turf for their first loss at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano. At no point in the match did Los Blancos look like winning, and they were lucky they did not concede more than one goal in the first half.

Here are three players on Real who must step up their game after this poor showing.

Real Madrid CF Karim Benzema

A note in this column is, unfortunately, familiar territory for Karim Benzema this season. It looked like he would turn it around after he finally got on the scoresheet late in the 2-0 win over Levante, scoring a nice finessed finish after evading the defense.

Instead of building on that performance, Benzema was quite poor against Cadiz. He wasn’t the worst performer on the team, but you’d expect a lot more from an experienced striker coming off an international break during which he did not play.

Benzema did not help the players around him and often stood in their way by drifting to the left with no plan. He was usually peripheral to the action and offered no real goal-scoring threat. He must do better, otherwise Real Madrid are in serious trouble. They rely on him greatly.