MADRID, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid coach Julen Lopetegui may have complained about injuries and bad luck after his side lost 1-0 to Deportivo Alaves on Saturday afternoon, but the pressure continues to mount on the former Spain coach after another poor display and a painful defeat.
Real Madrid had not lost a league game in Alaves' Mendizorroza Stadium since 1931 before Saturday, but although you could argue they were unlucky to lose to Manu Garcia's 95th minute header, they did little to deserve to win.
Lopetegui's side appears to have forgotten how to score: their last goal came in the 40th minute of their 1-0 win over Espanyol on September 22nd. Since then they have gone four and a half games - almost 7 hours - without a goal, losing 3-0 to Sevilla, drawing 0-0 at home to CSKA Moscow and now losing 1-0 away to Alaves.
It is the longest run without a goal since April 1985.
"Madrid in freefall," commented Madrid based sports paper Diario AS directly after Saturday's defeat, adding that recently signed right back Alvaro Odriozola was the only player who played at the level expected on them while 'Marca' considered quite simply that "Madrid are in crisis."
Lopetegui tried to explain the result saying "when you don't score despite deserving to things get complicated... we need to recover freshness and players and learn from our mistakes."
He was asked whether he risked losing his job, less than four months after replacing Zinedine Zidane, but evaded the issue saying "coaches are open to this kind of situations, we know it's not a good moment, but even if the worst happens, we're only going to be three points off the top of the table."
He also pointed to an injury list which includes full backs, Marcelo, Dani Carvajal, midfielder Isco and Bale; "We need to get players back and get back on the road to success," said the Real Madrid coach, who must also be worried about the tired displays Luka Modric and Sergio Ramos have given recently.
The problem for Lopetegui is that Saturday is his side's last game for a fortnight with the arrival of the international break and most of his players will now jet off to be with their national teams, meaning it will be 10 days before he has his squad back together.
International breaks are always difficult times for clubs with problems as the lack of news gives the press for speculation or for a replacement coach to bed themselves in before their first game in charge.
"It would be madness to change the coach now. It's very early to be talking about a change," said Real Madrid captain, Sergio Ramos, although he admitted to the press the decision was "not in the hands of the players," but club president, Florentino Perez.
The coming days will reveal whether Lopetegui will still be in charge when his squad get back together or whether he will be the first managerial casualty of the season and as just another factor: the first Clasico of the season, which is away to FC Barcelona is due to be played on the last weekend of the month.
