Former defender Michel Salgado claims that his former club Real Madrid are making the mistake of being too dependent on pace in order to win matches.

The Spanish club have been disappointing this season and things have not improved much even after the arrival of Zinedine Zidane. This has led to questions about the squad not being good enough to win the league title. Even though Madrid have some of the best players in the world like Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, there seems to be a balance missing from the squad on several occasions.

Salgado feels that the club has made a mistake in terms of buying players, as there have been too many purchasers focused on speed and other attacking qualities. Salgado also played in a team that was highly imbalanced. This led to Barcelona sweeping up a number of trophies during the glory days of Ronaldinho. The two giants of Spanish football will be coming together for the latest El Clasico this weekend. Madrid have an opportunity to reduce Barcelona’s advantage in the league title to just seven points. Even though it does not improve their chances of winning the league, it will help preserve some pride going into the summer.

“If we beat them it’s going to be good for our state of mind, for the collective belief ahead of the Champions league. It would bring great belief to the team. Sometimes one game changes everything in a season – it’s happened to me before and I hope it comes against Barcelona. Real Madrid have the players but it is not just now that they are missing something, it has been a long time. We know our style of football in last four years has been counter attack, and we lose control of games for long periods which is really bad for our team,” said Salgado.