5 players Real Madrid should have sacked instead of Julen Lopetegui

And so, it happened. Julen Lopetegui has been sacked by Real Madrid just four months after appointing him as the manager of the club. It seems as though people with good hearts are always the ones to suffer the most.

If karma existed, then Lopetegui would have won the treble and put Luis Rubiales in a perpetual state of wonder coated with regret as to what could have happened had he kept the Basque as the manager of Spain.

But now, Rubiales must be sipping his coffee with a grin on his face while bragging to his friends as to how right he was to sack him. It is not as though Lopetegui was without faults at all but that is a story that should have its own feature.

For now, we will just focus on the players who were atrocious and played the biggest role in getting the former Spain manager sacked. So, here are the 5 players who should have been thrown out of the club instead of Lopetegui…

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#5 Karim Benzema

First up with the usual suspect. Karim Benzema has been bad for over two seasons and yet, quite bafflingly, he is still at the club. All these years, there was something to defend him with: he provides Ronaldo great support.

Now, however, there is nothing left. After the departure of Ronaldo, the onus was on him to take up the responsibility of scoring. For the first few games, he was among the scorers for the Galacticos.

However, he is back to his usual self, missing easy chances and not being able to provide the presence in the box that Madrid need. In the Clasico itself, he had two clear scoring chances and he botched them embarrassingly while, on the other end, Luis Suarez completed a hattrick.

#4 Marco Asensio

What does he bring to a side?

This is going to shock a lot of people but perhaps it shouldn’t. When Marco Asensio made a name for himself in Mallorca and then broke into the scene while representing Espanyol on loan, he was touted as the next best thing.

With superb long-range goals against Barca in 2016, it felt like he is the real deal for both Spain and Real Madrid. However, ever since then, he has been all hype and little show.

The Spaniard can’t dribble past his direct opponent, looks shaky under pressure, doesn’t have the vision to make defense-piercing passes, lacks the pace to outrun defenders…

The list goes on and on. The only thing he has proven to be good is long-range shooting and even then, it is hard to remember the last time he scored a blinder. The general belief among the Madridistas is that Perez didn’t sign Eden Hazard so that the young Spaniard gets the game time to improve as a player and establish himself as a starter.

So far, it looks like a terrible decision as he has scored just once in the 14 games that he has played this season.

#3 Gareth Bale

Bale has not lived up to his tag

When the Welshman was signed for £86 million by Real Madrid in 2013, breaking the transfer record at the time in the process, a lot was expected from him. In his first season, he did deliver as he scored the winner in the final of the Copa del Rey.

He also scored in the final of the Champions League in 2014 and helped Real Madrid win their much-coveted 10th title. However, after that season, he has been on and off.

The former Tottenham superstar’s journey with the Blancos has been marred with injuries. As a result, it could be argued that the Bernabeu are yet to see his Tottenham best in a Madrid shirt.

Players are supposed to progress and improve in their late 20s. Bale, if anything, has regressed. This season, without Ronaldo, was the perfect opportunity for him to be the main man but with just four goals from 12 games, it is safe to admit that he is far away from that.

#2 Toni Kroos

The master has been terrible

Another shocking inclusion. Toni Kroos has been terrible since the turn of the year. Even before the World Cup, the German looked somewhat lackluster and it is no coincidence that Germany were knocked out of the tournament from the group stages itself.

What Kroos lacks in tenacity, he makes up for with positional awareness and controlling the midfield. This season, however, too many opponents have run circles around him and he looked least bothered by it.

This is a man that recently claimed that he expects more hard work from Leroy Sane when he plays for Germany. And yet, it is almost impossible for anyone to recall one moment where they saw him sprinting to win a 50-50 ball.

This season so far, he hasn’t been able to stamp his authority in midfield and has been a poor guardian for the backline.

#1 Sergio Ramos

The overrated one?

His goals and charisma fool a lot of people into believing that he is the best defender in the world. However, if anything, he has to be the most overrated one. Sergio Ramos is an enigma. There are matches where he is impenetrable defensively and it is in those games where he lives up to the tag of the best bestowed upon him.

However, that is something that represents the minority of his career. What happens quite frequently is how he leaves his zone and leaves the backline completely dishevelled while also putting his partner in trouble.

He is usually a good passer but this season, the Spain captain has made way too many wrong passes. To top it off, he has also been lacklustre at clearing the ball, something that allowed Luis Suarez to score his hattrick goal in the last Clasico.

The Galacticos conceded 44 goals in the league last season, which is their worst this decade, and Sergio Ramos was at the heart of it.