Orange alert in Madrid

Zidane, between Mendy (left) and Militão, during Real Madrid-Shakhtar last Wednesday.GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

Three weeks ago, after beating Levante, promises of improvement came out of the Madrid dugout.

But without transmitting anguish or haste.

There were some defensive cracks and in attack the team continued firing discontinuously, as always.

Misadjustments typical of a start to the course that had hardly had pre-season, it was said then.

However, what has come after is a huge sinkhole.

The ground has opened under Valdebebas' feet and this Saturday's visit to Camp Nou has become a critical day for the whites.

18 names and two blackouts

The blow against Shakhtar confirmed that the multi-organ failure suffered four days before against Cádiz was not episodic.

Two rivals without a big poster who appeared as a transit towards Barça vulgarized Madrid.

Except for some arreones, the collapse was general.

Zidane used 18 players between the two games -all those available except the substitute goalkeeper Lunin and the injured-, made four changes at halftime against the people of Cadiz, moved the line-up more in the Champions League, and nothing worked.

Courtois, Vinicius and Benzema were the only traces in the middle of both accidents.

A hypotensive team

The beginnings of the two meetings showed a Madrid without energy or resources to find ways against two well-organized defenses.

The pressure did not exist or was very uncoordinated.

“I am in favor of going for the game, of high intensity.

But for that you have to be prepared ... very prepared, "said Zizou this Tuesday with a final tagline that now sounds like a warning.

The slow and horizontal circulation resulted in a hypotensive team, without vigor, as worrying by the lack of ideas against Cádiz as by the lack of reaction a few days later in its staging against the Ukrainians.

Dry bands and a B drive in irrelevance

The bands, fertile fishing ground of Zidane in his previous stage, have dried up.

The right wing, without Carvajal due to injury (he has, at least, for another month), has gone blind.

The youth squad was last season the third maximum white assistant, with eight, and neither Nacho nor Mendy changed leg provided remedies for this absence.

And the arrivals from behind on the left, the area of ​​the field where a transition has most effectively been made with the bet on a rising Mendy, attend the passing of the years of Marcelo, starting the last two crashes.

The Brazilian, who still reached seven passes on goal the previous year, has broken down in attack and in defense his nuts continue to come out with the same frequency.

Cadista Salvi acted at will on that side.

The scarce contribution of Marcelo, and other regular substitutes such as Isco, Lucas Vázquez or Jovic, points to a unit B that has fallen into irrelevance, which deepens the feeling of vertigo in a team with so many rotations, without signings this summer and with an invariable nucleus in the last five years.

The first signs

The defensive shield, the great virtue on the way to the

(the least beaten, with 25), was the first thing that began to emit signals of imbalance.

Already before the break, Courtois made several key saves against Real, Betis, Valladolid and Levante to keep the team unbeaten in crashes resolved in the alhambre.

"He saved us," ZZ admitted twice in a row.

But against Cádiz and Shakhtar the team ended up unraveling.

He attacked without lights and behind him he left an extensive meadow that was used by both teams to punish him against.

With Casemiro and without him, Madrid suffered torture.

The first goal of the Ukrainians, with the left back, Korniienko, drawing a diagonal into the area without opposition portrayed a pale rear.

And the absence this Wednesday of Ramos deepened in the helplessness that the team feels without him.

Above all, Varane, who goes out to calamity for a European duel without the captain: two terrible misses in Manchester and an own goal against Shakhtar, the third of his career at Madrid.

An attack behind

The bolt on his goal was the guarantor of this team because he goes with the right thing at the top.

This campaign has eight goals in six games.

If we take the data only from the League so far from the greats of Europe, nobody presents more meager figures.

The whites, six in five games.

Bayern (17 in four games), Liverpool (13-5), PSG (16-7), City (7-4), Juventus (9-4), Barcelona (8-4) or Chelsea (13-5) se find all above.

Green sprout or symptom

The fact that Vinicius is the top scorer, with three goals, is news that, in the absence of more time to calibrate it, can be interpreted as an improvement of the Brazilian in his weakest facet (he has scored so many goals in the last four games as in the previous 26) or as a sample of the deficiencies of the staff in this section.

Or like both at the same time.

In any case, the left-hander, as he did two seasons ago, once again exhibited personality in an adverse scenario.

Within the ups and downs of Zidane's lineups, he is the main occupant of a left wing that was reserved for Hazard and that has not had the Belgian for practically a year due to physical problems.

ZZ's disgust

Faced with this unforeseen blackout and at the gates of such a tricky classic, ZZ took all the blame.

If after Cádiz he assured that "desire and rhythm" were lacking, after Shakhtar he resorted to sackcloth and put himself at the service of the footballers.

“I am responsible.

They are in the field and they need solutions.

I dislike the players, who have made me win many things.

They don't deserve this, ”he said.

The situation inevitably refers to the past. The one of a year ago, when he fell in Mallorca and went to Istanbul to risk his neck in Europe with the name of Mourinho grinding on Zidane's head. And to the last five years, because each league conquest was followed by a trigger. The demands of the Camp Nou and the needs in the Champions League do not admit further delays in the improvements promised three weeks ago.