Real Madrid coach Julen Lopetegui goes into this evening’s first La Liga derbi of the season with Bernabéu fans and pundits still unsure if the former Spain coach is really up to the job.

The spectre of Rafa Benitez’s ill-fated six months as Madrid manager in 2015/16 — the last time a former Madrid youth player and coach rose to the first-team bench — is sure to surface if Lopetegui’s side are outplayed or outbattled by local rivals Atletico.

The Basque’s first ever season as a La Liga manager started positively with remaining galacticos Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema scoring seven goals between them as the team won their first three games — immediately leading some pundits to claim Madrid were now a better team without departed individualist Cristiano Ronaldo.

But Wednesday’s shocking 3-0 defeat at Sevilla, following two points dropped last week at Athletic Bilbao, have led to the first serious questioning of Lopetegui’s tactics and man-management.

A failure to shake up an ageing squad filled with big personalities last summer looks a problem too, as previous coach Zinedine Zidane warned on leaving last June.

“I’m happy with the team so far, knowing that over a season there will be better and worse moments,” Lopetegui claimed yesterday.

“I’ve no doubt about the attitude of the players. Everything moves quickly in football, we coaches move on quickly from victory and defeat.”

The wandering concentration of club captain Sergio Ramos sums up Madrid’s season so far. When not publicly jousting with Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, the centre-back has been regularly charging upfield in open play, while also taking over Ronaldo’s old free-kick duties.

Meanwhile, the 32-year-old has been directly responsible for opposition goals in four of their eight games so far.

Early signs Benitez was not going to last long came after his first ‘derbi’ against neighbours Atletico. A 1-1 draw in October 2015 was followed by coach and captain blaming each other for a poor team performance in post-game interviews. There was only one winner in that PR battle.

With Lopetegui a more canny political operator, Ramos is sure to keep his starting place.

A calf injury to Marcelo, another influential dressing room figure, offers a chance to shore up the defence without blatantly dropping another woefully out of form senior player.

Also well-timed for Los Blancos is Barcelona entering a ‘mini-crisis’ of their own with just one point from their last two games, meaning the two out of form giants remain joint-top of the table.

But less fortunate is that Atletico have clicked in recent weeks, with Diego Simeone’s rugged side having won three straight games with three clean sheets, and now have a chance to end the weekend as leaders themselves.

The Spanish capital’s supposed poorer neighbours also have three wins and two draws from their last five La Liga visits to the Bernabéu.

“I don’t look at the form of the teams [before a derbi],” Simeone said yesterday.

“These are games for men. The ones who can play at their emotional limit end up being decisive for their teams.”

The division’s longest-serving manager, Simeone has already seen off all of Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Benitez and Zidane at Real.

The Argentine has already inflicted a defeat on Lopetegui in August’s Uefa Supercup ‘derbi’, and his team are experts at locating and exploiting their opponents’ weakness.

Being second-rate in their own city is not a situation which Madrid club president Florentino Perez will tolerate for too long. Lopetegui needs his big players to shape up and focus on the job in-hand, starting right now.