The numbers behind Marcelo's poor form Real Madrid Six defeats in nine league stars

Marcelo's sharp dip in form continued during Sunday's defeat to Girona as the Brazilian reacted too slowly to prevent the visitors' winning goal.

As Thibaut Courtois parried the initial effort away from goal, Portu got to the rebound faster than Marcelo to nod home for the Catalans.

It was certainly not for the first time that Marcelo has been directly involved with an opponent's goal in recent league outings, making his case for a return to the starting line-up impossible to justify.

In Marcelo's last nine LaLiga Santander starts, Real Madrid have lost six time, drawn twice and won just once, conceding 20 goals in that time.

The problem with the Brazilian became evident in the home defeat to Real Sociedad, when some sections of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu began to turn on the 30-year-old.

He was taken out of the team after that game, until the Clasico at the Camp Nou where he was again the focus of the opponents' goal.

Unable to return in time from an attacking run, Marcelo was nowhere to be found as Malcom found the space to smash home Barcelona's equaliser.

Perhaps, unlike in other seasons where he had experienced bad form, this time there is a player who looks capable of replacing him: Sergio Reguilon.

The youngster has impressed since entering the fold, and passed recent tests against Atletico Madrid and Ajax.

In Reguilon's eight league starts, Real Madrid have won all of them.

Santiago Solari is aware that the team looks fragile with Marcelo in the side and it looks as though only a drastic shift in form each left-back will see his return to the starting line-up.