Do You Think Real Madrid Is Suffering From A "victory Disease" In The 2017/18 Season?

Nope, and I?ll take this question as a chance to dispel that tiresome and dumb notion that ?teams don?t do well enough because their players don?t try hard enough?. Getting to play in one of the five biggest European leagues is a ridiculously hard task. Let me use English football as an example: only 12 out of 100,000 kids who play organized youth football end up making it to the EPL. And that?s ?just? the players who make it to the first division: only 1 or 2 of those kids will end up making it to an English top 6 club. A similar thing can probably said about Real Madrid and Barca. So I don?t know about you, but I don?t have the nerve to spout from the comfort of my couch that these elite players?competitive monsters who went through a system they had an infinitesimal chance of succeeding in?are somehow ?not trying hard enough? or ?tired of winning so much?. I am pretty sure that, except for special cases like Balotelli, the players who made it through this system want to win every single game. The actual causes for Real Madrid?s performance issues are more numerous and complicated than a ?victory disease?, and I?ve discussed them in more detail here, here and here. It?s a mix of having fewer goal scorers in the squad, the individual form of certain key players, and tactical issues with the team?s offensive structure.