Lopetegui faces pressure

It looked like a no-brainer at the time. Which coach wouldn’t jump at the chance to lead starpacked and wealthy Real Madrid?

But four months later Julen Lopetegui may be ruing the day the club’s president Florentino Perez made him an offer that he just couldn’t refuse.

Not only did his decision in June to sign for Madrid get him fired as Spain’s manager two days before the start of the World Cup, but the juggernaut Lopetegui inherited from Zinedine Zidane is now a team in apparent disarray.

Madrid has lost three times and drawn once in its last four matches. The team that boasts stars such as Luka Modric, Gareth Bale and Sergio Ramos hasn’t been able to score a goal in that span.

Even the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo, who left Madrid this summer as its all-time top scorer, can’t shield Lopetegui from being blamed for the team’s longest scoring drought since 1985.

Lopetegui has tried to take a team that for nine seasons was built around putting Ronaldo in position to score and mold it into a side that deploys a collective attack. In Lopetegui’s own words, “it doesn’t matter who scores, the goals are scored by the team.”

Unless, that is, nobody can put the ball in the net.

Madrid had already lost 3-0 at Sevilla, drawn 0-0 with Atletico Madrid, and lost 1-0 at CSKA Moscow before a humiliating 1-0 defeat at Alaves on Saturday. /