Football Season Guide

Real Madrid have experienced a summer of change, with both Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo leaving the capital city club. It is a major loss for them to have seen the coach who won three Champions Leagues in a row and to see the player who has become their record goalscorer over the past nine years both move on in the same summer, but the silver lining is that these have been the only significant departures. The squad remains one of the very best in the world, if not the best, and they may yet add to it before the end of the transfer window. While it’s almost impossible to fittingly replace Ronaldo, Real Madrid have brought in players in other areas of need, signing Alvaro Odriozola to solve the backup right-back issue and Vinicius Junior to provide some more width, something that has been lacking in recent years. In the dugout, former Spain coach Julen Lopetegui has come in to replace Zidane. He has experience of following in a legend’s footsteps, given that the man he took over from at international level was Vicente del Bosque. In his two years in the Spain job, Lopetegui evolved the team’s style and suffered zero defeats from 20 matches. He also got the best out of Isco, something that Real Madrid fans will hope the coach can replicate at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. Considering how poor Real Madrid were in LaLiga last season, where their points total of 76 was their lowest in over a decade, things can only improve when it comes to their league form in 2018/19. They seemed to throw in the towel at Christmas time in LaLiga last year because they were already so far behind, but if they can get off to a good start – and they have a kind run of fixtures in the opening month – then they should want to and be able to fight for the title to the end of the season.