Over before it starts: Could Julen Lopetegui's short tenure at Real Madrid be coming to an end?

Over before it starts: Could Julen Lopetegui's short tenure at Real Madrid be coming to an end?

The clock's ticking for Real's new manager as patience looks to be in short measure at the Bernabeau.

DRAMA and crisis wait around every corner in LaLiga. Julen Lopetegui will be feeling the pressure at Real Madrid amongst the whispers of Antonio Conte's name, as the demands and expectations of one of the world’s biggest clubs already begin to tell. For a coach looking to make wide-spread changes in the Spanish capital, patience doesn’t appear to be in plentiful supply.

The international break arrived at a good time for Real Madrid. It presented them an opportunity to bustle their coach and players behind cover from the incessant shelling of the Spanish media. As each poor result stacked up and their inability to find the back of the net rumbled on, stopwatches found their way onto newspaper front pages and the record books were hauled out to vilify a terrible run of form.

Heading into the Spanish top flight’s ninth match day, Real Madrid have already dropped ten points. Los Blancos sit in fifth place but find themselves just two points off the pace of front-runners Sevilla. Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have also struggled to hit their stride in the opening months of the campaign, with the inform likes of Deportivo Alaves and Espanyol throwing their hats in the embryonic ring too.

Scoring just twelve goals in eight league matches, Real Madrid are currently on a run that has seen them fire blanks against Alaves, CSKA Moscow, Atleti and Sevilla - stacking up to 7 hours and 49 minutes without a goal. This level of impotence hasn’t reared its head at the club since 1985. Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure to Juventus in the summer has made for an easy excuse, but Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio have shown in flashes that they can make for an exciting front three.

Against Roma in the Champions League, Lopetegui’s side put on a real show. Against Leganes and Girona in LaLiga, too, they found the back of the net with regularity, as Benzema racked up four league goals. At that point, the narrative was that the Frenchman had found his place in the side as a goalscorer once more, after turning predominantly into a provider during the Ronaldo era. Now, it is that perhaps the 30-year-old isn’t of the right standard to lead the line at such a top club.

Lopetegui's style of football is asking for further control, a more visible game plan. It wants to turn a group of talented individuals into a footballing machine, as opposed to Zinedine Zidane’s trust in his players to get the job done without any pioneering tactical approach. From their new coach to their new philosophy, everything is a learning process. It was always going to ask for time, patience and belief in the fact that eventually, having faith in Lopetegui would pay off.

The Italian media have been quick to suggest this week that Real Madrid club president Florentino Perez is already looking further afield for a replacement in Antonio Conte, a coach who got immediate results upon joining Chelsea in 2016. Back in 1985, when the Spanish giants endured their worst goalless run of five games, that burden fell on two different coaches’ shoulders.

Amancio Amaro was sacked after the initial four, before Luis Molowny grabbed hold of the reins and led Real Madrid to the fifth goalless game and a dismal piece of history. Lopetegui has the potential to seal his place in the record books without sharing the managerial blame. In the 1984/85 campaign, Los Blancos finished fifth, exactly where they currently sit this season. Replicating that situation from decades ago in 2018 would be inexcusable.

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