This article is part of Football FanCast's The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Real Madrid have not really had the best of starts to their new 2019/20 La Liga season as they have claimed only five points in three games. But upon further investigation, it seems that they may be relying on crosses a bit too much with no real target-man in the box, which might be costing them their points.

On the chalkboard

It's not really a secret that Real Madrid have been a dominant force in world football ever since the very beginnings, and their trophy cabinet just might be the best proof of that. One big part of their success was, of course, five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, who bagged in goals for fun.

But now that he's gone, Real Madrid's goal-scoring abilities have somewhat diminished. Last season, they only managed to score a total of 63 goals in La Liga, as opposed to the mighty 94 they scored the season before. Of course, a lot of that is due to Ronaldo's transfer to Juventus since Los Blancos lost such a prolific goal-scorer.

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But another big part of it is definitely in their tactics. They have started the new season with same struggles as before and a lot of that is due to the fact they're unwilling to change their tactics despite missing key pieces to perform it.

Against Villarreal, Real Madrid deployed a total of 26 crosses into the box with no target-man waiting to slot them in. And this just might be one of their biggest problems.

A change of tactics

In the 2017/18 season, Ronaldo's last at the club, the Galacticos averaged 24 crosses per game in La Liga, which was the second-highest figure in the league that year. This was somewhat understandable given Ronaldo's ability to rattle the net with his head as the Portuguese superstar scored five headers in La Liga in that campaign alone. He also averages 0.9 headed shots per game in his career.

But looking at Real Madrid's current crop of attackers, no one comes close to him in this regard.

Bale has completed 0.5 headed shots per game overall, Benzema 0.4 and the newcomer, Luka Jović, at 0.6 headers towards goal on average across all competitions and seasons. This means that, in a post-Ronaldo era, crosses should not remain a fundamental part of Real Madrid's repertoire.

Against Villarreal, they deployed 26 crosses, which is more than what they did with Ronaldo in the team and more than 20 on average they managed last season.

It would be in Zidane's best interest to step away from this tactic and focus on different solutions if he wishes for his team to start performing better in the future.

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