AS.com

Madrid's gunpowder is damp. Their supposedly explosive centre forwards, Benzema and Higuaín, aren't firing and the club is worried about their poor form. So much so that the future of both players is being called into question, with the club beginning to ponder moving one, or both of them, on if the situation doesn't change from here to June.

The system of rotations that served Mou so well last season has stopped working and both strikers are off the pace. Only Cristiano has maintained his goal scoring run from last year. In the first two big games of the season, against Barcelona and Manchester United, Benzema and Higuaín managed five shots between the two of them (only two at the target) while Cristiano fired off 13 shots, including a goal against his ex-team mates.

Benzema continues to enjoy a slight advantage over his Argentinean team-mate in the eyes of his coach and the club. He started the two decisive games, but this season he has misplaced his killer instinct and returned to being a tabby cat. He's scored 13 goals in 1,946 minutes, a goal every 149. In 2011-12 he was popping one home every 107 minutes.

Higuaín has scored nine goals in 1,354 minutes, one every 150, whilst last season he was sending keepers to pick the ball out of the back of the net every 91 minutes. This dip in form has meant he is yet to carry out the contract renewal he agreed verbally with the club last season. The idea was to renew the deal up to 2017 and increase his wages from 3.8 million to 4.5. But new contract is on 'standby', meaning he's annoyed and is thinking of leaving. Which means if one of them has to go, it's maybe more likely to be him...