Wednesday 11 March 2015 14:58, UK
Gareth Bale is being jeered by Real Madrid’s own fans because they don’t believe he is showing enough commitment.
That’s the verdict of Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert Guillem Balague after the Welshman was targeted by supporters during the 4-3 Champions League defeat at home to Schalke on Tuesday night.
Bale signed from Tottenham for £85million in September 2013 and scored the winning goals in both the Champions League final and Copa del Rey final last season.
However, he has not scored in his last nine matches and white handkerchiefs – a sign of disapproval - were waved in his direction on Tuesday night.
“It’s an accumulation of things and it has been happening for a while,” Balague explained on Sky Sports News HQ.
“What do they want from Bale? That he scores very important goals and wins titles with those goals. Fine, he did that last season and everybody was pleased with it.
“Now that he’s not scoring – it’s nine games without a goal – they want him to show more defensive commitment. They want him to track more often and help the full-backs, for instance. They want him to link more with the midfield and do more of what they expect from a player in that kind of position.
“Gareth Bale thinks he’s a forward and he wants to pay back in goals the confidence and the money Real Madrid have put into him.
“If there are no goals he should be doing more. That’s what everybody expects and to be honest they are treating him a little bit like a scapegoat or the villain of this story.
“That is surprising, but in any case it should actually challenge him and make him better at the end of it.”