Zinedine Zidane has already lost twice as many games in his second spell as Real Madrid coach as he did in the entirety of his first stint on the Los Blancos bench
What makes that fact striking is that those 19 defeats have come in just 90 games, compared to the 16 games he lost in 149 matches during his first spell in charge.
Real Madrid’s decline is evident, even despite their 2019/20 LaLiga Santander title win. After their latest defeat to Levante, they’re now up to eight defeats for this season, which is one more than they suffered last season.
Zidane is now just one loss off his previous worst record of nine in 2017/18, which saw him say goodbye to the club at the end of the season. His winning percentage has fallen by 12 percent, and his losing percentage has doubled.
The Frenchman has now lost 14.64 percent of his total games in charge, even worse than Jose Mourinho’s 12.3 percent – the Portuguese lost 22 of his 178 games in charge.
Falling without Cristiano Ronaldo
The drop in efficiency can be linked to the end of the Cristiano Ronaldo era at Real Madrid.
Beyond the back-to-back eliminations at the last-16 stage of the Champions League, following three straight trophies in the competition, Los Blancos’ struggles without their former No.7 have been clear.
With Cristiano, Real Madrid lost 64 of 519 matches (12.33 percent) and won 374 (72 percent). Without him, they’ve lost 33 of 136 (24.26 percent) and won just 89 (58.85 percent). If only games that he played in count, then Real Madrid’s losses during his time at the club drop to just 11.8 percent.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s goals were huge for Real Madrid. They averaged 2.65 per game with him eat the club. Since he’s left, that average has fallen to 1.8 per game.
Real Madrid are suffering from a goals-per-game crisis, which has hit them hard this season, sending them into their umpteenth crisis of 2020/21.
Zinedine Zidane’s side have been unable to score more than one goal in five of their last seven games between LaLiga Santander, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de Espana. Of those, they’ve lost three times, drawn twice and won twice. They were knocked out of the Copa and Supercopa, and they’re 10 points off leaders Atletico Madrid, having played one game more than Los Rojiblancos.
This latest crisis is defined by an inability to score. Other than the 2-0 win over Celta Vigo and the 4-1 victory against Alaves, Real Madrid’s forwards have hit a wall in front of goal.
Even in last season’s title win, Los Blancos had their problems in front of goal. Then, though, they were bailed out by defensive solidity, but even that has disappeared of late.
In 13 of their 28 games this season, Zidane’s side have failed to score more than one goal.
Scoring goals has been a problem for Real Madrid for a while now, particularly since Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure in 2018, and beyond Karim Benzema’s 15 goals they lack someone who can find the net.
