Football
PA Sport 9y

Gareth Bale situation at Real Madrid 'strange' - John Toshack

Former Real Madrid coach John Toshack believes the club may not be getting the best of Gareth Bale because they are playing him out of position.

The Wales forward is coming to the end of his second season at the Bernabeu and has found himself come under fire from the club's fans and local media for his performances.

Bale has scored 17 goals in 48 appearances in all competitions for Real, but only three in his last 19 games.

Toshack, Bale's former Wales coach, said to Spanish newspaper Marca: "What I have clear in my mind is that Bale is much better than he is proving. A lot better -- not just a little bit.

"With Bale, everything is strange. I don't see him happy. It's true that playing for Real Madrid can be imposing, but it shouldn't be his case after two years.

"I see strange things, gestures with Cristiano Ronaldo, looks. Injuries have also cut his rhythm. But I see him playing and it doesn't look like him. I see him suffer.

"He is not galloping like he did before with the 50-metre runs or more, just as he did in the Copa del Rey final last year. He no longer does that.''

Bale netted crucial goals to help Real win the Champions League and the Copa del Rey titles in his first season at the club.

However, the 25-year-old was jeered by the home fans in last week's Champions League semifinal against Juventus when he failed to finish off several chances.

"I don't see him as a seven," said Toshack, who led Real Madrid from July 1989 to November 1990 and returned for a nine-month spell in 1999. "All of his life he was a three. There's something that doesn't add up.

"At Tottenham he played at the centre of attack, with space. He would come and go as he would please."

Bale's pace and direct running is what attracted Toshack to include him in the Wales squad when he was still a teenager.

"He was 17 when I brought him to the national team," the former Real Madrid coach said. "I shouldn't get the credit -- he did it all himself with his abilities."

Real, who end the Primera Division campaign at home to Getafe on Saturday, will finish the season without winning La Liga, the Champions League or the Copa del Rey.

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