Much to my surprise, most of the administration and players at Real understand that the loss they suffered this weekend can not be blamed on the absence of Ronaldo.
Sports director of the club Miguel Padreza was quoted saying Real Madrid "should be above individuals," meaning that "Ronaldo-dependency" is not acceptable to the club.
I think there was speculation this summer that something like this would happen- with Real buying up the best talent on the Earth, the real question was would they be able to play together? Soccer is not like baseball- all of the best-paid players actually have to be able to interact (very well) together if they want to put points on the board. And so far Real has been able to do that, until this weekend.
They have all of this amazing individual talent among their players, but they have to work on playing on a team. Yes, if you give the ball to Ronaldo of Kaka within shooting range of an opponent's goal.
The lineup of Real is almost an entirely new team. They have to adjust to the new players and readjust their playing styles a bit.
Of course, Sergio Ramos is the only one who proved me right- he believes that the game would have been different with Ronaldo. And I'm sure it might have been different, but that's not the point. The point is that he shouldn't even be thinking about what player was or wasn't on the field for the loss. The focus should solely be on the loss and what the team has to do to improve.
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