4 most disappointing players for Real Madrid this season

#3 Gareth Bale

Bale has not stepped up to replace Ronaldo

Signed from Tottenham in the summer of 2013 for a then world record fee, Gareth Bale struggled to replicate the form he showed with Tottenham which made Madrid splash the cash on him, as injuries and loss of form limited his impact.

A major reason for his underperformance at the Bernabeu was the presence of Ronaldo, as with the Portuguese available, there was always only gonna be one captain of the ship and that captain was Ronaldo.

Bale had shown flashes of his brilliance in the past, but not on the level or as frequently as his huge fee demanded and his lack of playing time was one which gave the Welshman cause for concern with him coming out publicly to state that he might consider a transfer if situations did not improve.

Ronaldo departed and the stage was set for Ble to become the talisman of the team, but he has largely failed to step up to the plate since the Portuguese left.

The 28-year-old has not had impacts on matches the way Ronaldo did, often having to be substituted early after putting AWOL performances.

So far this season, he has scored just 4 goals from 14 LaLiga matches with his last goal against Huesca ended a barren run in front of goal which lasted almost three months (10 hours) of LaLiga football.

Even though things have improved somewhat for Bale in recent weeks, with him tying Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as the only players to have scored in three different Club World Cup tournaments, this is still a long way off the performance which was expected of him at the start of the season.