Something rotten is going on at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Simply put, Real Madrid is in deep trouble.

Days after being officially eliminated from the Copa del Rey for negligently playing an ineligible player in the tournament, the club lost a big away game despite having a chance to catch up to a faltering Barcelona.

Now the team is five points out of first and is looking more and more like the Champions League is its only remaining hope for a title. And this falls squarely on the shoulder of coach Rafa Benitez. Here is how the coach has faltered in his first season in Spain's capital.

Not using his resources wisely

James Rodriguez wants to leave, according to Metro. That would be a huge blow for the club as the Colombian was one of the top players for the club last year and had a strong start to this season as well.

But Rodriguez has often found himself playing well out of position with few options of asserting himself as the creative force he was for Carlo Ancelotti in 2014-15. The Italian coach knew that to get the most out of the Colombian, he had to put him in the midfield and let him move into the hole with freedom. All he asked was for Rodriguez to backtrack and help out on defense.

It worked marvelously and Rodriguez came away with 17 goals in his first season as well as 15 helpers.

This year Benitez will not let him near the middle of the pitch, instead holding firm that Gareth Bale must occupy the hole. Bale is not a natural there, especially when the space is limited. He can shoot, he run and he can cross. But he cannot make the creative game-breaking play that Rodriguez can.

And that is simply a woeful use of resources.

The use of Danilo at the right back is another example. The Brazilian has been mediocre at best for Madrid, looking lost on the defensive side of the ball. He has benefited from injuries to Dani Carvajal, but he never should have gotten a chance with the Spaniard on the side. Carvajal is better overall going in both directions.

Substitutions are Horrid

This past loss against Villarreal was emblematic of Benitez having no sense of how to use his substitutions.

He took off his midfield maestro Luka Modric, his stabilizer Casemiro and replaced them with Isco and Mateo Kovacic. The former move made little sense while the latter boosted the offense while sacrificing the defense. In the case of his final substitution, bringing on Jese Rodriguez for Marcelo, the notion is simply baffling.

Bale was put on the left wing, while Jese took over the right. It was a clear attempt to throw everything on net, but it destroyed the shape of the team and resulted in nothing.

Benitez was expected to be stronger in this department than Ancelotti, who was known for not making substitutions until late in the game, at the expense of burning his team out quickly, but Benitez's substitutions are often of the random variety.

Formation Does Not Suit the Team

Benitez loves his 4-2-3-1 formation, but that style of play relies heavily on two midfielders that not only are strong at retrieving the ball. It can, however, also make plays moving forward.

In Madrid's lineup, Modric and Toni Kroos are arguably the two players that should be in that spot but neither is particularly good at recovering the ball. Casemiro is great at the latter task but hardly Xabi Alonso when it comes to making passes to go forward.

The result?

Modric has to do the heavy lifting when Casemiro is around, thus making the midfield's game plan predictable. When Modric and Kroos are in that position, as evidenced in the Barcelona game, the two look lost at best.

The 4-3-3 under Ancelotti worked with the two in the midfield because the manager got his third midfield to buy into tracking back and helping defensively. This meant that the three would rotate up, with Kroos usually sticking back and knowing that he would still get tremendous help from one of his partners.

Benitez's system has his forwards move up deep into the opposition half, thus making it easy for the opposing midfield to cut off the supply and kill the attack.

Thus we see Rodriguez look frustrated on the wing. Or Cristiano Ronaldo, who is having the worst La Liga start of his career with only 10 goals in 15 games. Or even Karim Benzema, who was completely isolated against Villarreal and finished the night with just 24 touches, the least of any starter on the team.

This also puts tremendous pressure on the defense to keep the team stable and we all know that if not for some herculean performances from Keylor Navas early on, this team would be in a far worse position. Navas is still an elite keeper, but he is not perfect and even the best go through some rough patches. However it seems that when Navas is not stopping the impossible, the team has no way of responding offensively.