Jose Mourinho has spoken out on Real Madrid's poor season (Image: GETTY )
Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid to join Italian giants Juventus in the summer, and the Spanish side have struggled in his absence.
Real Madrid lost 1-0 at home to Barcelona on Saturday after losing 3-0 at home to their rivals just four days earlier.
Ivan Rakitic scored the only goal of the game as Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Vinicius Junior drew a blank.
Former Manchester United and Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has given his opinion on their poor season, and blamed the lack of a new approach after selling Ronaldo.
Real Madrid are out of contention in the league and were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Barcelona earlier in the week.
Los Blancos remain in contention to win their fifth Champions League title in six years, but Mourinho thinks that it can disrupt the start of a season.
“They won the Champions League and it wasn’t the first time, they won it for the fourth time in the last five," he added.
“Can that cage the profile of the preseason? Maybe yes.”
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Real Madrid's players have underperformed in recent fixtures (Image: GETTY )
During El Clasico on Saturday Sergio Ramos was spotted catching Lionel Messi in the face during a challenge.
Mourinho has backed Ramos after the incident, and claimed that the defender did nothing wrong.
He said: ”I think Sergio Ramos' action probably is coming from a player that knows the game has to change.
"And probably he does it with the intention of creating a different temperature for the second half, because the game until then was really soft, in my opinion."