So easy to pin it on Benitez. Man was never gonna be given a fair go and was lumped with all the blame. Look at their game against Villarreal in December where they lost 1-0; Bale puts 3 or 4 perfect crosses for Benz to miss sitter after sitter, Ronaldo too, yet Benitez and 'tactics' get the blame.
2 points behind a Barca in perfect form with a Clasico still to play when sacked.
Key player having a horrible season up to this point, Bale constantly in-and-out, and even Benz' whole off the field issues. We can also point to Rafa being the man to bed Casemiro and clearly wanting to play him for the first Clasico that killed any chance Real had.
And even then, people give Zidane the benefit of the doubt on bad results/performances because he's only in the door - wasn't Rafa only in the door? Zidane's teams looked awful against teams like Las Palmas and Granada over 2 months into his reign.
Looking at Rafa's results now, how many were really bad? Losing to Sevilla and Villarreal away is no shame. Drawing with Valencia away, while a bad team, is no shame either. A draw against Atleti away where Real were the better team for most of the game is no shame. Losing to us hurt obviously but we were in perfect order then.
So what's left? Drawing with Sporting away the first day is bad, true, but Zidane drew with Betis away in his 2nd game who had the worst home record in the league, do people level that at him? Malaga at home 0-0 was a bit bad, but Real were robbed that game, decision after decision, and a clear goal in the 90th minute.
I get that we're talking about Real Madrid, a massive club, but can you really tell me there was that much wrong results wise? Are we gonna pin the Copa on Rafa too?
Miss me with that 'Rafa was Barca's best friend' chatter.
