After awful defending and no quality Striker, it seemed Real Madrid should fix things ASAP. ATM scored 4 Goals against Real, thou Defense was awful but i might need to add the lack of Striking capabilities in Real Madrid is a new dilemma after Ronaldo exit.

REAL MADRID COULDN'T LAST FOR 50 SECONDS WITHOUT CRISTIANO RONALDO

Thoughts??

Personally, I agree, but then again, I don't think thats the only problem, Real have made defensive mistake in their last game and they need to fix those above all else.

Seems like a bit of an overreaction. Real was weak at the back, but they have two of the best CB's on planet. They didn't look fantastic up top, but they still scored two goals.

It was the first competitive game of the year. New manager. Shit happens.

I think they will miss ZIdane more than anything else.

lol zidane is what you're missing. hey, what about morata going back aas a cf :P

@Baldgenius Still never understood why they sold Morata, this guy was their future, he clearly loved the club and would have worked extra hard for them. Big shame for me. :(

I had placed my hopes high on Neymar, but oh well. This is just pre-season worthless tournament. The machine will start soon !

@expertfootball Yeah, he isn't coming now, thats for sure, will be very hard to pry him off PSG as well.

Madrid didn’t participated to the market inflation lately which is positive. But their targets were somehow mission impossible : Mbappe and Neymar are impossible to attract, Hazard and Kane/Eriksen will be unlikely considering both selling clubs can’t sign since the mercato is over... Rodrigo of Valencia imo is not an upgrade to Ascensio. Imo they aren’t in a bad shape but i feel that the new coach is not ZIdane caliber. And Barca this season will be very complicated to beat domestically since they didn’t have Coutinho and Dembele starting the season last year nor in the CL, with Rafinha back in form and Munir from loan, with the addition of Arthur, Vidal, Lenglet and Malcolm Barca actually have a bench while Madrid lost Kovacic. Really excited about this season.

Watching the Super Cup, it's amazing that even with so many amazing playmakers like Kroos,Isco for example it was so evident that Asensio is the weak link.

Particular situation comes to mind when in first half Bale gets the ball on the counter and passes to Asensio that is free but he was so slow and let the whole defence of Atletico to come back and ruined the counter-attack, that in the last 7 years has been more than deadly, if Ronaldo was there that is 100% at least 2:1 lead at half time for Real Madrid.

They miss both Ronaldo and Zidan.

I have no idea what tactic did they deploy at certain times, in the end there were way to many crosses, even Modric did those... And they didn't have Ronaldo to finish those any more.

Ronaldo sheer present would distract and destroy defender confident at time, now that's they would need a long time to have one of those back.

I dont think they would be much weaker without him, but without both of them... uhmnn problem is more serious

@Golazo Well yeah, maybe, but then again, Asensio was pretty close to score a brillant solo goal. ;D

@tuan_jinn Yeah, Zidane would get them motivated and Ronaldo would finish the job, without one of them, they would still be sharp but now they lost both, Real became a bit more dull. :(

Madrid have lost Pepe, James, Morata, Mariano, Danilo, CR7, and Kovacic in recent seasons. They have brought Ceballos, Llorente, Vallejo, Mayoral, Odriozola, Vinicius Jr to "replace" those. Weakest squad by far. Last season it was already shown to be weaker than Atletico in La Liga. I am not expecting Lopetegui to make miracles with the current squad. I just do not understand why Madrid personnel does not see this.

DannyZeek

REAL MADRID COULDN'T LAST FOR 50 SECONDS WITHOUT CRISTIANO RONALDO

I laughed way harder than I should have lol

On the topic, I think it's too easy to call for a disaster. Madrid before Zidane had just lost 4 0 to Barcelona on their own turf without Messi starting. He had the courage to drop and sell the likes of Morata, James, Bale, Pepe and quite a few more but they were the main ones. Now I think Zidane would have handled a situation a bit better simply because he was there longer. I'm guessing Madrid is also trying to becoming more of a Spainish team, because lately they are increasing in terms of Spanish players and adding youth like Llorente and Valejo. Even in transfers, players like Ceballos have been added.

We will see how things go.

Give them a bit of time, Real just lost 2 of their biggest assets.

with them they still lost, became a cup winning team, but still lost to Barca and other La Liga teams. So lets not over drama about Ronaldo's move yet.

Modric and Kroos and Marcelo are aging, thats part of their prob too

Lowest attendence at the Bernabeu in the last 9 years.
No Ronaldo no party.

actually it's 10 years.

Insane... And to be honest, I does feel a lot less attractive

I think this deserves its own thread :O

Socios are used to get a star player each preseason to be the attraction. Now in 2 years, they didn’t seen one, Ceballos, Odriozol ?, Courtois can not be labeled as Galactico signing. Socios are intelligent enough to show their disapproval of club matters. I think it played a role. Plus there is no denying that many youngsters were heartbroken with Ronaldo move. It’s only Getafe I think things will get soon to normality. At the end it’s Real Madrid.

Probably just a coincidence regarding the low attendence: Getafe, match ending at noon, no Galactico signing etc.

Also worth mentioning that when they previously had less than 50k at the Bernabeu (2008/2009 season), it was a result most likely due to the collaps of Real Madrid losing all their 5 last league matches. If that didn't happen, you would have to go back to 2004 to find the previous match the Bernabeu had less than 50k attendence.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/real-madrid/besucherzahlenentwicklung/verein/418

And if you look at the average attendance throughout the seasons, it doesn't seem that Ronaldo had a very big impact. In the end it's Real Madrid, like Tiki said.

@tiki Courtois could be considered a Galactico as he is a world class player, however, the fact Real didn't make an extremely big case of it and refused to sign him for a big amount (propably put extra pression on Chelsea to get a low price) kinda make it feel like it isn't one. There is also a lot of controversy about the move from some of his former team so it doesn't help. Also, its kind of hard to get excited for a goalkeeper. Especially considering many Real fan must have still hoped to get De Gea.

Lowest attendence at the Bernabeu in the last 9 years.
No Ronaldo no party.

Barcelona had about 53k for the season opener. Oh and btw Messi started and killed it. It's more about timing than anything else.