Why Gareth Bale Is Under Most Pressure for Real Madrid Following Athletic Win

Less than a month after he had come in for criticism from the Real Madrid fans, Iker Casillas' name was greeted with a reception more fitting of the club legend which he is prior to Sunday night's demolition of Athletic Bilbao.

It was a similar story for Karim Benzema, who departed the action in the second half a hero after scoring twice.

To say the Frenchman had been out of form would be an exaggeration. However, it is true he had not managed a goal in La Liga since his strike in the opening-day win over Cordoba.

In the meantime, he scored twice in the Champions League, one against Basel and then the winner against Razgrad Ludogorets, but his lack of league goals was cause for criticism among Madrid supporters.

There are such high demands and expectations for the 10-time European champions, that playing well is rarely good enough for forwards who ply their trade there. Goals are a necessity.

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

And while all players have ups and downs, there will always be spells where goals seem harder to come by for attackers—unless your name is Cristiano Ronaldo, it seems—and when you find yourself going through a dry spell in the Spanish capital, the pressure increases.

With Benzema briefly rediscovering his scoring boots, it is now the third member of the BBC who needs to follow suit: Gareth Bale. Three games is a long time without a goal at Madrid.

The Welshman was good against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday evening, but he was overshadowed by another Ronaldo hat-trick and Benzema's brace.

He did create two of the goals—taking him to five assists for the season—and Who Scored statistics reveal he had six shots in the match; it just seems things are not quite dropping for him at the moment.

Competition	Appearances	Goals	Assists
La Liga	27 vs. 7	15 vs. 4	13 vs. 3
Champions League	12 vs. 2	6 vs. 1	4 vs. 1
Copa del Rey	5 vs. n/a	1 vs. n/a	2 vs. n/a
Spanish Super Cup	n/a vs. 2	n/a vs. 0	n/a vs. 0
UEFA Super Cup	n/a vs. 1	n/a vs. 0	n/a vs. 1
Total	44 vs. 12	22 vs. 5	19 vs. 5

Last season he made his mark in a variety of games, scoring 22 times in 44 appearances and also notching decisive goals in the Champions League and Copa del Rey finals. So far this season, even the goals that he has scored have been fairly unimportant.

Bale's first goal of the season came in the 4-2 defeat to Real Sociedad; he was then unable to bring Madrid back into that game in the absence of Ronaldo when the San Sebastian side turned the tide, having fallen 2-0 behind early on.

His next four goals have all come in heavy wins. He scored one in the 5-1 victory against Basel, two in the 8-2 success over Deportivo la Coruna and one in the 5-1 thumping of Elche.

Having Ronaldo in the side can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the two appear to be developing a good understanding—no player has set up more goals for the Portuguese forward since last season started, per Opta—but on the other hand, it casts Bale in the background.

Although, that is also a good thing: It means while Ronaldo goes about relentlessly breaking every club goalscoring record standing, Bale can afford to take a back seat.

While he's sitting back there, though, he still needs to contribute.

Bettering last season's goal tally, especially after a full pre-season this term, is a must. Five goals in his first 12 games is not a fantastic return, but it's a start.

No goal in three games isn't as impressive, but at least he has been playing reasonably well.

The goals will soon return—as they have for Benzema—but until they do, the pressure on Bale's shoulders will increase with each goalless minute.

That's the nature of modern football, especially when you have an £80 million price tag on top of your head.

Stats taken from Who Scored and Transfermarkt.