Football Season Guide

The 2018/19 campaign was so disappointing for Real Madrid. They finished 19 points behind Barcelona in third, while they were knocked out of the Champions League at the last 16 stage. Towards the end of last season, Zinedine Zidane returned as coach and he’ll be in charge as they go into the new season. There are some question marks over Zidane, as he didn’t really turn anything around when he arrived in the spring. Real Madrid didn’t replace Cristiano Ronaldo last summer and they didn’t even try to. This year, though, they have spent big in the market. Their most significant signing has been that of Eden Hazard, who can take some of the goalscoring burden off Karim Benzema. Elsewhere, they added depth with the likes of Luka Jovic, Eder Militao and Ferland Mendy. The squad looks better than it did last season and Zidane brings an aura of success with him too. So Real Madrid should be better than last year. Whether they’re improved enough to challenge Barcelona remains to be seen. There are a lot of strengths to this squad, not least their abundance of attacking talent. Even with Marco Asensio being ruled out for most of the season with a knee injury, they still have so many quality forwards. A weakness, though, is at the back. On paper, they have top-class defenders but they’ve not functioned well for a few years now. Plus, goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was quite unconvincing in his first season at the club.