Madrid malfunction
Last updated: 20th February 2008
Schuster: Blaming players
What we are seeing now is a Madrid who score the first goal and relax, and we haven't seen that before this season
Guillem Balague on Real
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Guillem Balague told Revista de la Liga the first faults are beginning to show in the Real Madrid machine.
Real reached the mid-season break with a record points total, but recent weeks have seen them beaten at newly-promoted Almeria and, on Saturday, go down 2-1 at Real Betis after they had gone ahead early on.
So what could, for a few hours at least, have been an 11-point lead at the top has dwindled to five thanks to bitter rivals Barcelona's victory at Real Zaragoza. And boss Bernd Schuster is reacting angrily.
"That's four defeats from nine games played in 2008", Guillem told Mark Bolton, taking into account two reverses at the hands of Mallorca in the Copa del Rey.
"There's always a question mark in the second half of the season about Schuster's teams, and I wonder if that's getting him nervous - that, and the injuries to Robinho, to Wesley Sneijder, who is out for a month and - especially - to Pepe at the back.
"Marcelo was so poor (against Betis), and then he had 'an injury' and was out of the squad to play Roma in the Champions League.
"Schuster was so upset he went straight from pitchside to the press conference - he didn't even want to see the players.
"When he was asked what the defeat was down to, he basically said: 'ask the players'."
So just what is it annoying the German so much, other than the results? A lack of work ethic, according to Guillem.
"What we are seeing now is a Madrid who score the first goal and relax, and we haven't seen that before this season - they used to go for the 90 minutes.
"That's why he was so upset with the players - he wanted the intensity which was missing against Almeria three weeks previously.
"It's not a crisis of any sort, but what we are seeing are little cracks - finally there are things which aren't working about this perfect machine that is Real Madrid."
