Eibar

Real Madrid's terrible two weeks got worse, and they got more injuries

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:36 p.m. ET

Ryan Rosenblatt

Real Madrid drew. Again.

That's four in four matches for the Merengues, who had previously won their last 16 in La Liga to tie a league record. So to say that they've fallen off is an understatement. But Sunday's draw was especially bad: it was to Eibar.

Not to trash Eibar, but they had never taken a point off of Real Madrid before. They had never even scored a goal against the Merengues. And on Sunday they walked out of the Bernabeu not just with a 1-1 draw.

Real Madrid were the better team on the day so it's not like they were a disaster. They passed the ball fine, created some chances and were the better team, but they didn't run roughshod over Eibar. They were flawed, as anyone who saw their defending on Eibar could attest. They were sloppy in front of goal and missed several basic passes that you or I could have connected on. They weren't Real Madrid.

They haven't been Real Madrid for two weeks now. Not since Casemiro went down and it only got worse when Luka Modric joined him on the injury list. Then, because this seems to be their luck right now, James Rodriguez had to be pulled out of the starting lineup on Sunday because of a knock he picked up in warm-ups. And then it got worse.

Karim Benzema had to be subbed off because he hurt his knee and Raphael Varane exited the match after an injury that Zinedine Zidane said was "a strong bang."

Real Madrid's problems are not entirely down to their injuries, to be sure. They didn't fail to finish because of the players they were missing and having them fit wouldn't have made Dani Carvajal mark Fran Rico on the Eibar goal, or Keylor Navas save the shot that hit him right on the hands. They need to right those problems because the last time they drew four straight matches, Zidane was still playing for the Merengues.

Still, the list of injuries is getting awfully long. They're running low on players, as evidenced by the number of Castilla players on their bench today, and as good as Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Sergio Ramos might be, they can't pull this team along by themselves. They need some help, which they haven't been getting and now they're not even sure where they can get it from because seemingly everyone else isn't healthy enough to take the field.

And to think, two weeks ago, we were talking about Real Madrid setting a La Liga record and going seven points clear atop the league. Not so much now.

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