I agree with you re:Madrid ... Real may bounce back, i mean keep something in mind, in 2015 season when ZZ took over from that moron Benitez, Real was in horrible shape 2, ended up winning the CL
so not all hope is lost. Its hard, but NOT impossible. As mentioned previously, few things were expected , few surprised everyone ...
Losing Morata and not getting a striker, stupid and expected
however, Carvajal heart infection, Casemiro SHARP decline, Modric Decline, CR sharp decline, Navas injury and Karim hitting a new low were not ... yes, every year players age and that has an impact on their performance, but the surprise for me is CR, from HERO and scoring non-stop to completly a different person this year ...
CL is still very much alive, lots of time to recover, League is much harder, especially since I dont see Barca dropping cheap points and right now, if Real beats them home and Away,,, still nothing ...
On a different note, I had this discussion with a friend of mine, what is the norm now days, you spend money and buy talenet , they say you kill talent develppment, and not using your own home grown players, then ZZ comes and starts using homegrown players, then peolple go crazy when Real loses !!! i mean you cant have the 2 side by side "ALL the time" yes, you sometims hit a golden generation like Barca did, Xavi, Inista, Puyol, Messi, etc, Pique all at the same time, and won big with mainly home grown players, but that is not the norm ... so what is right?
Real Won 2 CL back to back (NOT EVEN BARCA COULD DO IT), won the league last year, folks relax ... its ok to not win anything this year, if it means we develop our youth. chill.