As Mariano Díaz curled a beautiful 25-yard effort past Robin Olsen, there wasn’t a single person watching in the stands, or glued to their TV sets at home, that could predict what was about to happen.

On September 19, with Real Madrid 3-0 up at home to Roma, all seemed well in Los Blancos’ world.

What a difference a month can make.

Since that rout of the Italians in the Champions League, Real Madrid’s form table reads: played four, lost three, drawn one, zero goals scored.

You have to go back to the mid 1980s to find a run this bad. So, where’s it all gone wrong for the reigning European champions and who exactly is to blame?

The manager

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“Coaches are always exposed, but I am not thinking about [the sack].” So said Julen Lopetegui after their 1-0 defeat to Alavés two weeks ago.

Not the kind of quote you’ve come to expect from a Real Madrid coach in early October.

Zinedine Zidane’s sudden departure from the club in May sent shockwaves through football and the talk about who could succeed such a totemic figure in Real Madrid’s history was incessant.

Plenty of major names were touted but eventually, with just two days to go before the World Cup was due to start in Russia, Madrid announced then-Spain boss Lopetegui was their man.

It completely derailed La Roja’s tournament, it made even the most entrenched Blancos supporter blush and it caused all us neutral’s minds boggle at the arrogance of it all.

Real Madrid were doing what was best for Real Madrid, but in the process placed a burden on their new coach that was completely avoidable and caused far more harm than good.

After riding the initial ‘New Manager Wave’, Lopetegui has found himself in the firing line and looks bereft of ideas at European football’s top table.

The tactician has blamed their recent lack of goals on constant misfortune, but when you’ve got Isco and Gareth Bale out injured and Karim Benzema being Karim Benzema, his decision to bench Marco Asensio at Alavés was even more baffling.

Odd team selections and an inability to change things in-game have led Lopetegui to look like a dead man walking, and with the small matter of a Clásico next week, the end may be nigh for the 52-year-old.

The players

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Of course, the manager can’t be the only one to take the responsibility for Real Madrid’s recent shambles.

Lopetegui may not be getting the best out of his über-talented squad but the lack of leadership on the pitch is remarkable for a team coming off the back of three consecutive Champions League trophies.

Without Dani Carvajal and Marcelo in recent weeks they’ve looked like a shell of a team, sorely lacking in competitors who can drag the side past lesser opponents by sheer force of will.

The summer’s exertions in Russia have clearly played their part, but even after reaching the latter stages of the World Cup, Luka Modrić, Raphaël Varane, Sergio Ramos et al should have more than enough to get past the likes of CSKA Moscow and Alavés.

The elephant in the room here is clearly Cristiano Ronaldo. He may have taken his goals with him to Juventus, but it looks, from the outside at least, that he’s also taken his work ethic and indeterminable will to improve as well.

Reports from Spain suggest that players are taking to the coach’s training sessions and are longing for Zidane’s return.

That may be the case, but should it not be incumbent on players at the world’s biggest clubs to stop feeling sorry for themselves and get back to working hard?

The men upstairs

A recent report from the CIES showed that Real Madrid were officially “the most stable club in Europe”.

On average their players stayed for six years – way longer than any other major club on the continent, and showed just how high the pulling power of Santiago Bernabéu is.

It’s difficult then to imagine the scenes inside the board room over the summer.

First Zidane dropped his bombshell after the Champions League final, then Ronaldo decided he was going to swap LaLiga for La Vecchia Signora.

Two of the club’s most important and influential figures leaving in the space of six weeks? It would rock most sides, but there was a hope that under the right coach and with the right additions, everything would continue as normal in the Spanish capital.

That has evidently not been the case. Although the thought process behind Lopetegui’s hiring looked sound, the way it was done, as noted previously, completely undermined the manager and made them seem above the law.

Added to that the failure to bring in a properly big name – someone to excite the fans and forget what a big loss the Ballon d’Or winner was going to be – then the writing really was on the wall.

Football is clearly not a zero sum game. They didn’t need to go out and try to replace Ronaldo’s goals and influence in just one €150m player. But to only bring in Mariano Díaz and Vinícius Júnior in attack was, frankly, a dereliction of duty on the board’s part.

Florentino Pérez holds too much power to see his position be under threat, but this summer, and his inaction, could hold them back for years to come.