Real Madrid‘s return to league play to defend their title began in great fashion as Los Blancos defeated Deportivo la Coruña 3-0 in the Estadio Riazor Sunday night. Here are the player ratings of each of Real’s players who featured in the match.
Goalkeeper and Defense
Keylor Navas – 9
I simply can’t hate on Keylor Navas anymore with the way he’s playing.
The Costa Rican keeper is back to world-class form to start the 2017/2018 campaign. After allowing two goals in the first three matches, Navas earned his second consecutive clean sheet to kickoff the LaLiga season on the right foot.
The starting keeper stopped every shot that came on target, stopping all five shots he faced. Deportivo took 12 shots in total, and Navas was comfortable stopping all of them.
Navas made two big saves inside the first 15 minutes and settled into the match nicely. His best play, however, was his penalty kick save on Andone in the 88th minute. The match was already decided at this point, but for Keylor to still put in the effort and keep the clean sheet was incredible.
Again, I have to give it to the man, he was phenomenal in the opening match. Dare I say in mid-season form?
Marcelo – 8.5
I feel like a broken record speaking highly of Marcelo after every match.
But, the Brazilian deserves the praise yet again. He was a force on defense, and great on the attack as well, adding another beautiful assist to his running total.
Marcelo provided a perfect cross to Casemiro for the second goal in the first half on a low cross placed perfectly on the foot of countrymen at the back post.
Marcelo has been assisting goals recent like he’s a left midfielder or a left-winger, not a left-back. He’s in a world of his own as the tweet below shows. Like a nice wine, Marcelo is just getting better and better with age.
Marcelo has recorded more assists (11) since the start of last season than any other defender in Europe's top 5 leagues.
— Real Madrid Info ³⁵ (@RMadridInfo) August 20, 2017
[@Squawka]
Sergio Ramos – 6.5
Sergio, Sergio, Sergio. You headache you.
After putting in a great 90+ minute performance, going back and forth with striker Andone all match, Captain Sergio lost his cool like he’s been known to do drawing a second yellow which forced him off in the 91st minute.
Had he not been an idiot at the end of the match, I would’ve awarded him a 7.5. However, now there’s a chance he misses the next match due to a high elbow to the head of a Deportivo player.
I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I called this happening in my preview of the center backs.
And he earns himself this gif:
Nacho – 8
I thought Nacho was fantastic all night.
I was surprised a couple times with his speed tracking back to make a steal or interception. Deportivo did a good job stretching the Real defense and hitting back on the counter attack. Nacho was the one who covered the back, from sideline to sideline, the best of any of the defenders.
In his first appearance in the new campaign, the Spanish center back showed he will be a sufficient replacement after Pepe’s departure this summer.
He made two tackles, won two ariels, and was all over Andone all match. Overall a very solid match from #6.
We will likely see Nacho several more times this season if Sergio keeps doing Sergio things.
Dani Carvajal – 7
Dani had a tough match Sunday night, going down grabbing his leg once, and his shoulder another time late in the match.
The speedy right-back completed 94% of his passes in the match and finished tied with Marcelo for the most tackles on the team with 4.
We have yet to see the attacking prowess of Dani thus far in the early season, but it seems he’s shaking off some rust getting back to full match speed.
It was Carvajal who helped to stop a potential early goal from la Coruña as helped to cut off Andone in the 5th minute.
Midfielders
Toni Kroos – 8.5
Toni didn’t have the usual beautiful game he usually does, but nonetheless, it was very impressive.
Completing 74 of 82 passes and moving through the midfield with ease, Toni bagged himself a nice goal with the help of Gareth Bale and a deflection.
Toni was very involved on the attacking in today, taking 5 shots, putting two on goal, having two blocked, and one off target. The goal he scored was a beauty as he knew exactly where on the field he should be, and waited for Bale to lay the ball off to him.
Toni has had some trouble finishing chances in the past couple weeks, so it was even sweeter to see him put one in the back of the net.
Casemiro – 8
The defensive midfielder that is determined to not be a defensive midfielder, Casemiro did it again in the first match of the league season.
After scoring in the UEFA Super Cup against Manchester United, Case proved he still has an eye for goal, getting forward and right footing a perfect Marcelo cross into the back of the net.
Two tackles, great passing, three ariels won, a goal; there’s literally nothing this guy can’t do.
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It was another veteran performance from the best holding midfielder in the Spanish league, and Casemiro looks to have set himself up for another big year as a staple in Zidane’s midfield trident.
Luka Modric – 7.5
The “lowest” grade amongst the midfielders goes to Luka who had a pedestrian performance compared to his always high expectations.
Luka picked up a yellow card 11 minutes into the second half for a tough challenge and afterward was pretty quiet.
He completed 67 of his 71 passes, dribbled the ball with precision, and helped on defense more than on the attacking side.
Luka is one of my favorite midfielders, and he didn’t play poorly today, he just wasn’t as involved as he usually is in these types of matches.
Isco – 8.5
Much like my rating for Marcelo, it’s hard to find a bad performance from the ‘bandy-legged bandit’ Isco.
This match was no different as the up and coming star pushed forward often in his natural attacking midfield role. It was Isco who had a hand in helping on all three of Real Madrid’s goals, however, he was not directly awarded an assist for any of these great plays.
It was Isco who helped in the lead up to set up the first goal for Bale, he then made the cross field pass to set up Marcelo’s assist, and finally, it was he who played the through ball to Bale which set up his assist to Toni Kroos for the third goal.
His name might not always appear on the final stat sheet, but Isco Alacron always has an impact on the match.
Forwards
Gareth Bale (Man of the Match) – 9
You have no idea how happy it makes me to see Gareth return to the play we’ve become so accustomed to seeing in the past.
Bale kicked off the ’17/’18 campaign breaking a 10 match goal drought by scoring the opening goal of the season off of a deflection which saw him easily tuck the ball into the empty net.
He wasn’t done there, adding a professional assist to Kroos for the third and final goal, holding the play up in the box, turning his back to goal, and finding Kroos at the top of the box.
In 80 minutes of work, Bale started strong, and finished strong, but disappeared for a long period from the half hour mark, until his assist to Kroos in the 62nd minute.
He completed 85% of his passes and was making good runs trying to get on the end of a couple crosses.
Gareth has now scored the first goal in LaLiga play for Real Madrid in three straight seasons. Not a bad track record.
Karim Benzema – 7.5
Karim was a bit absent tonight and looked clunky when he received the ball.
He bottled several of his dribbles and wasn’t a real threat to score at all during the match. The French striker was credited with an assist on the Bale opening goal, but it seemed more like a failed shot rather than a designed pass to the Welshman.
However, the Big Benz moved around the field nicely creating space for his teammates like usually does, and again was a factor in setting goals up.
Substitutes
Marco Asensio – 6.5
Marco came on in the 65th minute to replace Isco, but didn’t impact the match nearly as much as he has in the past couple weeks.
He didn’t need to make any plays as the match was already decided, but the Spanish phenom was pushing forward with pace and looking to bag another goal for himself.
He nearly curled in an awesome free kick in the final minutes, and nearly was in on a breakaway but the pass was broken up.
Marcos Llorente – 6
Llorente was brought on just four minutes after Asensio to replace Casemiro and didn’t have much of an impact in his time. This is definitely not what he was looking for, as it could have been his chance to prove to the coaching staff that he deserves a spot in this squad.
He missed on just one of his passes, but Deportivo were able to find more space to attack after teh substitution.
I don’t know if it was all Llorente’s fault, but not having Casemiro in made a difference.
Lucas Vasquez – N/A
Vasquez came on for Bale in the 80th minute and didn’t make much of an impact.
The right winger was pushing forward with pace and helping back on defense but didn’t get a whole lot of touches in his 10 minutes of play.
Next: Deportivo 0 – 3 Real Madrid: Quick Take from the LaLiga opener