What’s Wrong With Bale At Madrid?

Publicly, Bale insists nothing has changed. “I haven’t really adapted my style of play,” he told Sky Sports after Real’s first leg win in their Champions League tie against Schalke last month. “In certain games, if a sight of goal has opened up I’ll take it.” However, Sky Sports pundit Thierry Henry has a different interpretation of what he’s seen lately from the Welshman.
“I don’t know if he’s trying to overcompensate but when you play with a big man like Cristiano Ronaldo, we’ve all been in that position where you have to feed the guy of the team,” said Henry. “I had to do it with Sonny Anderson (at Monaco) and he was letting me know when I wasn’t giving him the ball.
“He’s looking to assist Cristiano Ronaldo and he did the same thing against Deportivo the other day. He looked like he was making sure he wanted to give a goal to someone, maybe to stop people talking. We’ve all had to feed the man but you have to find the right balance there - to not upset him sometimes but also to play your game.”
It’s an extraordinary turn of events that has seen Bale go seven games - and over 10 hours of football - without contributing either directly or indirectly to a Real Madrid goal. He’s not gone longer than this without a goal or assist since the 2010/11 season. It’s quite a change. The player Real paid a reported €100million for did not think twice before pulling the trigger.
In his final season at Tottenham, Bale had 165 shots in the Premier League at a rate of one every 18 minutes of play. Only Luis Suarez had more efforts that season and only Suarez and Mario Balotelli took a shot at goal more often than Bale. Real knew what they were buying and until recently, that’s precisely how their acquisition went about his business.
Bale had a shot every 24 minutes for Real Madrid in La Liga last season.