The reason Real Madrid fans are roasting Gareth Bale for his Levante performance

By Kobé Tong      SEP 09, 2017

Gareth Bale isn’t exactly hated by Real Madrid fans but he’s not loved, either.

The Welshman enjoyed a fantastic debut season with Los Blancos, scoring winning goals in the Copa del Rey and Champions League finals. Since then, however, Bale has struggled to reach his old heights.

That being said, you can only go so far wrong at a club like Real. Even an off-colour, injury-dogged Bale can strut his way to three Champions League titles in just four years.

It’s hardly surprising when you have Cristiano Ronaldo playing alongside you.

But remove the mercurial Portuguese and you take a lot away from Real’s game.

That was exactly the case on Saturday with Zinedine Zidane’s men locking horns with Levante at the Bernabeu minus their talisman.

Virtue of a Karim Benzema injury, Bale was introduced into the fray to try and fill the CR7-shaped void. Interestingly, he was deployed as an out-and-out striker as opposed to his usual position out wide.

And Real desperately needed a goal. Ivi had propelled the visitors into a surprise lead in the 12th minute and despite Lucas Vazquez’s leveler; the hosts were laboring for a winner.

Simply put, Bale didn’t help the cause.

In fact, his performance as lead man left a lot to be desired and Real fans were bubbling up with frustration on Twitter.

The ex-Tottenham star struggled to hold up the ball, was dire in the air and squandered a number of big opportunities. Take a look at some of the misses below (skip to 7:20 for the second):

Supporters were taking to social media in droves to articulate their shock at Bale’s questionable heading ability. It’s not difficult to imagine Ronaldo rising to head home some of the chances above.

With Bale failing to find his shooting boots, Real did indeed slump to a disappointing home draw. To make matters worse, a poor result was compounded with a late red card for Marcelo.

It’s fair to say Real’s Welsh wonder won’t be leading the line again for the foreseeable future.