Bale remains unfocused Opinion - Real Madrid Of Carlos Carpio

Luka Modric, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos, Toni Kroos, Marco Asensio and Casemiro have been playing below their normal level for some time, but everyone knows that the World Cup had an impact. They are tired.

With Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, that's not the case. Neither player competed in Russia in the summer, so they don't have an excuse. The Frenchman is at least trying and continues to contribute his link-up play, although that's more and more of an issue without a No.9 by his side. I always thought that Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo were a perfect pack, but without the latter, or without a striker like the Portuguese, it seems that Benzema becomes more dispensable.

The situation with Bale is different. He has been dispensable for some time. Against Real Valladolid, in the first home match with a new coach, he was supposed to be the new leader and was supposed to bring back the fear factor. Yet there was no news from him. There have been too many of these games. There have been so many that he has missed through injury or through not appearing. It's true that it's not his fault that he has the tendency to injury himself or to be unavailable, but it's also true that he has missed 103 matches compared to the 202 that he has played. It's devastating that he has only played 55 percent of the total minutes.

The problem with Bale, though, isn't just physical. It's about mood, mentality and leadership. Santiago Solari tried to get him motivated in his own way by calling him fantastic and saying the spotlight is his. Yet he is unfocused, indifferent, disengaged, hardly participating and he received jeers as he was substituted in the 70th minute with the score at 0-0. An 18-year-old kid had to come on to get things going because Bale has gone seven matches without scoring despite being the highest-paid player in the squad by some distance. It's such a shame that a footballer with so much talent has such little character.