Real Madrid Player Ratings vs. Leganés

Real Madrid travelled to the second smallest stadium in La Liga, the Estadio Municipal de Butarque, to face a surprisingly dangerous Leganés side. A 4-2 win allowed Los Blancos to maintain their 2 point lead over Barcelona, but also offered us the chance to examine some players who haven’t gotten the playing time they deserve. Let’s go ahead and dive into this match’s player ratings.

(Photo credit should read JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images) /

Manager Rating – 7/10

Zinedine Zidane gave us an almost completely different lineup from last weekend’s match. In fact, only Danilo and Nacho carried over to this match’s starting XI. Once again, Zidane showed us just how much depth our squad has.

He opted to use a 4-3-3 once again, which isn’t a con, but a 4-2-2-2 with both Mariano and Morata up front and Asensio and James playing as CAMs on their respective preferred sides would’ve offered something different.

Zidane’s attacking game plan was great. Unfortunately, we kept seeing what his biggest flaw is: defending. He made an interesting sub when Isco came on for James Rodriguez, but it wasn’t a bad sub by any means.

Keylor Navas – 5/10

It’s really sad to see poor Navas go from his best season to his worst season in the span of 10 months. Last season, he made the top 5 La Liga goalkeepers with clean sheets. This year, he doesn’t even make the top 10 (he’s currently tied for 13th place).

He had another questionable performance in this match. He wasn’t really at fault for the second goal, but his lack of positioning and indecisiveness led to the first goal, and he was lucky to end the match without a third one.

Going back to the second goal, his overall response time is down. Last season, he probably would’ve at least gotten a hand on the ball.

Marcelo – 7.5/10

An adequate performance from everyone’s favorite left back. Resting up last weekend did him good; he was his usual energetic self throughout the match, offering support going forward.

Not a lot of Leganes’ attacking was done on his side, which is always a good sign. If tonight was a warm up for Saturday’s Madrid derby, I’d say he’s looking good.

Sergio Ramos – 7/10

Sergio Ramos had an alright showing. It wasn’t his best match but it was far from his worse, although that could probably be attributed to Danilo’s and Nacho’s poor performances covering any Ramos errors.

If that seemed too vague, Ramos could’ve been replaced by any other defender and it wouldn’t have had zero impact on the outcome. There was no important tackles or trademark Ramos attacking play.

Nacho – 6/10

Not a lot can be said about Nacho’s performance either. He won an assist by heading the corner that led to Morata’s first goal. Apart from that, he had a pretty forgettable performance. He didn’t really offer a huge help to the back line, and made various errors throughout the match that gave Leganés throw-ins and corner kicks.

(Photo credit should read JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images) /

Danilo – 5.5/10

By far the worst player on the pitch tonight. He was mostly at fault for Leganés scoring their first goal because of his poor defensive positioning, and is 100% at fault for giving Leganés a morale boost that almost saw a three goal gap go to a one goal gap in less than five minutes.

He also squandered a beautiful assist from Lucas Vazquez in the 42nd minute. It was a one on one with the goalkeeper and he shot straight at the keeper with almost no power.

Casemiro – 6/10

It was not a good match from the defensive midfielder. He wasn’t the defensive wall we’ve come to love. In fact, Leganés did whatever they pleased in the midfield, leaving him all but useless in the first half. This was definitely one of his worse performances of the season so far.

(Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images) /

James Rodriguez – 8/10

James had a huge performance that slowly decline as the game went on. He opened up the score with a close range right footed shot off a great assist from Asnesio.

He was then directly involved in Morata’s first goal, taking the free kick that led to it. He was everywhere on the pitch in the first half, even making it to Real Madrid’s own third at one point.

Unfortunately, he disappeared in the second half which led to Zidane replacing him with Isco. The fit he threw on the bench after the substitution was a bad look, and will probably come back to haunt him.

Mateo Kovacic – 8/10

Mateo had a good match. Like many of Real Madrid’s players, he had ups and downs throughout. He assisted Morata’s second goal, placing a great pass before Morata slotted it home. He also managed to complete 92% of his passes. Not too shabby.

Lucas Vazquez – 6/10

Didn’t really offer much going forward and offered even less going back. The one play that could’ve upped his rating was squandered by Danilo.

(Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images) /

Alvaro Morata – 9/10

Remember last time Morata started? We all unanimously said “so this is why he doesn’t start over Benzema”. Well, today, he shut everyone up. He had his best performance of the season, scoring a brace, and he was unlucky not to have completed his hat trick (La Liga credited it as an own goal from Mantovani).

Either way, in most of our eyes, he proved how great he can be when he’s surrounded by players who feel more comfortable assisting as opposed to scoring. One of the few players who remained consistently great throughout.

Marco Asensio – 8.5/10

What a performance from the young playmaker. He had yet another great showing, showing everyone how much he deserves to get more playing time. His flair was on full display, accumulating five (yes five!!) nutmegs in the final third and adding an assist to his name.

That assist was magical by the way. He took on the whole Leganés team in a 48 meter run before passing the ball to James for the first goal. Add in his wonderful dribbling and never-ending energy, and you have a really promising player who just announced he’s here to stay.

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