It might only be October but Real Madrid are embroiled in a crisis, by their immaculate standards at least.
Three goalless outings in succession for the first time since the 2006-07 campaign – which included a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Sevilla and a timid 1-0 Champions League group stage loss to CSKA Moscow – have made the honeymoon period under former Spain boss Julen Lopetegui a thing of the past.
After a bright start to his Bernabeu tenure, the former Los Blancos goalkeeper has plenty of problems to fix as his Whites side lack spark in front of goal while key injuries and loss of form from big-names have paid their part.
And now, staggeringly, according to Marca, the beginning to Lopetegui’s reign has been condemned as the worst by any Los Blancos boss during Florentino Perez’s presidential years: 2000-2006 and 2009 up to the present day.
Lopetegui’s first ten matches in all competitions – factoring in August’s UEFA Super Cup defeat to Atletico Madrid – have yielded five wins, two draws and three defeats.
Indeed, those stats make Lopetegui’s record poorer than that of Vicente del Bosque, Carlos Queiroz, Jose Antonio Camacho, Mariano Garcia Remon, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Bernd Schuster, Manuel Pellegrini, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Rafa Benitez and Zinedine Zidane.
