After El Clasico Despair, Can Gareth Bale Turn It Around at Real Madrid?

In the lead-up to Sunday's Clasico at the Camp Nou, Ozgur Sancar of Madrid-based daily AS published an interview with Royston Drenthe, the Dutch winger who spent five years on Real Madrid's books between 2007 and 2012. 

Asked about his experiences in El Clasico, Drenthe recalled a missed opportunity in Los Blancos' clash with Barcelona in December 2008—a match Real Madrid lost 2-0 when Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi scored in the dying minutes. 

"I had a chance to put us 1-0 up but I missed... Later Eto'o and Messi scored and we lost," the Dutchman, who's now at Turkish club Kayseri Erciyesspor, said of that evening at the Camp Nou. "If I had put that chance away in the first half we might have gone on to win."

But it was Drenthe's next sentence that carried extra significance. 

"These things can change your life," he added. 

Gareth Bale might concur.  

Indeed, the margins are so, so fine for the Welshman right now. Just as he's finding out. 

In Sunday's Clasico, the former Spurs star had the ball in the net for a 2-1 advantage but saw the goal disallowed because Cristiano Ronaldo, whose header had flicked on to Bale, was just inches offside. 

Only minutes later, Bale found the ball at his feet on the edge of the six-yard box after Toni Kroos' corner. Throwing a right boot at it, his shot flashed just wide of the post. 

A chance had gone. The score remained at 1-1. Barcelona had been let off the hook. Real Madrid were deflated. And then beaten.

Bale, once more, was the source of frustration. The target for criticism. 

On Sunday in Catalonia, a matter of inches—inches—stood between the No. 11 and walking away as the match-winner. As the hero. With two goals that might have swung the title race. 

Instead, those inches have made him the villain. AS didn't give him a rating in their post-game analysis. Marca, via the Daily Mail, said: "[Florentino] Perez has paid €100 million for someone worth €20 million." When he returned to Madrid, his car was attacked. 

"These things can change your life." 

Interestingly, Drenthe's interview is a case of unnerving timing. 

As noted by the Guardian's Sid Lowe at the time of the former Real Madrid winger's miss in that 2008 Clasico, the Dutchman had earned the nickname "Accidentrenthe," and in 2009, he was hit by anxiety after being booed by his own fans at the Bernabeu.

"When the fans are unhappy you notice it and it makes it harder to perform well," he told Marca at the time, per Sky Sports.

You have to wonder if Bale, privately, is thinking the same thing. For he's also drawn the ire of the Bernabeu. Several times. Whistles and boos have been common. He's been a lightning rod for abuse, from which he's appeared to suffer. 

Naturally, his performance in Sunday's Clasico is only likely to heighten that. And heighten is the key word here. Because, on its own, Bale's showing against Barcelona hasn't initiated the forward's woes; instead, it's just the latest in a number of showings that have seemed to push a fan base, the collective opinion, to a tipping point. 

In 2015, Bale's form has evaporated. His dynamism has vanished. His goals have dried up. 

A "perfect" first season, as it was described by David Beckham in an interview with AS, is being followed by one that, game by game, is falling apart. Every week the criticism crescendoes. 

In less than a year, Bale has gone from being a title-clincher (think Copa del Rey and Champions League) to a guy who's becoming uncomfortably anonymous—against Barcelona, he had fewer touches than every starting outfield player from both teams aside from Pepe, per WhoScored.com.

As such, Marca's scathing assessment might have been incredibly harsh—as well as greatly exaggerated—but the existence of the frustration was understandable. The guy did cost €100 million. 

At ESPN FC, Lowe (an outstanding journalist on La Liga) was asked by a panel: "Why is it that people pick on Bale: Is it xenophobia? Is it his price tag? Is it that he's not Ronaldo?"

"All of the above," he replied, while also acknowledging the desertion of the player's form. 

But the criticism of Bale has other elements behind it, too; the Welshman's current predicament is multifaceted. 

Here at Bleacher Report, Guillem Balague believes part of Bale's problem is that he's yet to fully grasp the extent of the expectations at a club like Real Madrid:

"

What perhaps he fails to realise is that goals are only part of the scenario, although expected nonetheless. But the crowd haven't been booing him because he hasn't been scoring but because of other aspects of his play, or more accurately the lack of them.

What the people were asking for was more work without the ball, more tracking back, more sweat in midfield, the occasional evidence of a defensive shift at the sharp end, rather than just a place in the spotlight on the main stage. 

"

At ESPN FC, Andy Brassell expressed a similar sentiment and insisted the expectation is something Bale needs to get used to:

"

The bottom line is that it is all part of the deal when you join Real Madrid. No player is too big to be torn out by fans and press. Fairness doesn't really come into it. Bale knew, or should have known, when he signed that with extraordinary prestige comes mind-bending levels of expectation. That will not change, and it is simply something that he must accept, as Ronaldo and Benzema have done before him.

"

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

Strangely, manager Carlo Ancelotti's attempts to publicly support Bale seem to have backfired. 

Earlier this month, the Italian had said the presence of his three superstar forwards in the starting XI was "non-negotiable," giving Bale, along with Ronaldo and Benzema, a vote of confidence. 

"I think he may regret saying [that]," Lowe remarked on Ancelotti's insistence that the trio will always start. "I think it creates an environment which actually isn't conducive to success.

"If you take away that internal competition at the club, I think you damage the relationship in the dressing room, you damage the way the fans look at players."

It feels cruel on Bale that even his manager's attempts to protect him haven't had the desired effect. It's something that's out of his control. Much like the fact that he's not Spanish (fans at the Bernabeu, like those nearly everywhere, understandably long for homegrown talent), that he cost €100 million, that he's not Ronaldo. 

But there are things Bale can control. Little details that are up to him. Smaller targets he can focus on that might begin to endear him to those who watch.

You can envisage the mood that surrounds him changing if he made a gut-busting run to lay a tackle. Made a last-ditch intervention. Cleared a ball off his own goal line. Used that athleticism to win a header he shouldn't. Harassed an opposing centre-back into submission. Blocked a cross. Charged down an opposition shot after a corner. 

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Such intangibles have been a factor in Isco's rise to the darling of the Bernabeu. But they also stand as a possible route back to form for Bale. A way to regain confidence. To regain the feeling of contributing consistently. To recapture the unwavering trust of team-mates, and, by extension, the club and its fans.  

As Drenthe explained, the big moments, the tiny margins, the Clasico: "These things can change your life." 

But it's the little details that might hold the key to Bale returning to the favourable side of those margins, to turning it around at Real Madrid. 

He's certainly capable of doing so, but will he?