Despite sitting second in the table behind Villarreal and ahead of closest rivals Barclona and Athletico Madrid, there are some people yet to be convinced of Rafa Benitez's ability as manager of Real Madrid.

On tonight's show, Spanish football journalist Sid Lowe explained that Real's performances under Benitez haven't merited as much criticism as he is getting in some parts of Spanish media.

"He's made a huge effort, verbally at least, to assert that he is in fact an attacking coach" he said.

"He refers to his time in Italy that he was regarded as an attacking coach, at times overly attacking. Of course when Real Madrid put five past [Real] Betis, six past Espanyol and slaughtered Shaktar Donetsk, those results helped him.

"They didn't perform particularly well in the Madrid derby this weekend and I think there's this perception that it's all well and good slaughtering some of Spains teams, but there's six or seven teams where your season is really judged."

Benitez has kept Real playing well and Lowe suspects that the perception of his tema's results has been distorted by the local press.

"At the moment some fans are thinking ' Oh, let's wait and see, we're reasonably happy with this.' The derby wasn't great but it was away at the Calderon where they had failed to score in six hours of football.

"I think what has happened is a some of the media has turned on him. If we say 'This is always what you were going to get with Benitez', I think we can flip that and say 'This is always the reaction you were going to get from certain sections of the media'".

You can listen to full interview, including Ronaldo's transition into a natural number nine by clicking the podcast below.