Alex Kirkland

You know what I think is interesting, actually, Craig, is obviously the Betis game would have factored into it up to a point, had it then been followed by really good performances or had it been preceded by really good performances.

But of course, you had this run of five victories in a row for Real Madrid and in none of those five victories except the Betis game, in which, of course, Kylian Mbappé, by the way, was absent and Gonzalo García played up front and scored that brilliant hat-trick.

You have five games in which four of the five, you think, they're really not very good.

Even if they win those games.

Now, I think you could probably make a case for saying that Real Madrid have competed in the final of the Spanish Super Cup.

In fact, the reaction in Spain, I think very interestingly, was a reaction that said, well, yes, they've been defeated by Barcelona, but they did compete.

And they had two opportunities very, very late in the game to have taken the game to penalties and maybe to have won the Super Cup.

But this goes on longer than that.

Of course, it goes beyond those five games that they won.

It goes to that run of only two victories in eight.

It goes to being beaten by Liverpool.

It goes to conceding five against Atletico Madrid.

It goes to being beaten at home by South Africa, but not just beaten, but beaten by a team that looks so, so much better than them when they shouldn't be.

And I think that's the, if you like, the underlying thread in all of this is that

With the exception of maybe two, three games over the course of the season, Valencia comes to mind, that Betis one you mentioned comes to mind, the Clásico, the first one against Barcelona maybe even comes to mind, although with one or two slight doubts around it.

With the exception of those three games, perhaps a couple of others that, to be perfectly honest, at the top of my head I can't think of, you just really struggle to think of a performance in which Madrid were genuinely good.

And I think that's the bottom line, as well as,

The sense of Xabi Alonso not connecting with some of the players, the sense of Xabi Alonso not entirely connecting with some of the club hierarchy, and just that feeling that actually, at what point was this going to get better?

So you can have that better scheme that you're talking about.

You can have a performance against Barcelona and think that's okay.