Gareth Bale’s haters at Real Madrid are starting to get quiet
All summer Real Madrid heard cries from fans, writers, and everyone else about how Gareth Bale should be sold or the option should be explored at the very least. Even from me. Well early in this season’s La Liga campaign, Bale has been one of three only bright spots for Los Blancos thus far.
We are only five games into the 2017/18 La Liga campaign and the title basically feels lost. The only real bright spot so far has been Gareth Bale. Bale, who had his name slandered all summer, even by myself at times has been bossing it early on for Real Madrid. In just five appearances and less than 400 minutes played, Bale has created 5+ chances, scored twice and assisted one goal. That’s pretty solid, nothing eye-grabbing, but a solid start.
Per 90 is where it gets crazy though, Bale’s per 90 passing and chance creation metrics are on par with Messi so far in La Liga, who already has double-digit goal contributions. They are also on par with who was seen as the bonafide better player over the summer, Isco. And yes, they are better than Asensio. You can see all the comparisons via Squawka in the tweets below.
Bale is leading Messi on assists, despite having over half a dozen instances I can think of where great passes were squandered. He’s been creating chance after chance for Los Blancos so far and the assist numbers and chance creation numbers shown above back it all up. He’s also been very clean with the ball, having an 83% pass completion %, 1% off the great Lionel Messi.
Isco and Bale have also been neck and neck as far who has the better season so far. As you can see Isco leads in total passes and pass completion %, but that is to be expected. The latter is expected because Isco is a playing more of a CM role now, and is just genuinely a better passer. As you can see though, Bale has been better on the attack and has created more chances and provided more key passes. Also, the only reason Isco has more assists is “luck”, Bale has easily set up chances for more goals.
Bale is also top 15 in La Liga in goals, chances created per 90, assists and match rating for players over 300 minutes played. He’s been bossing it, he really has. Gareth also should have had his third goal of the campaign today, but was just unlucky.
Bale has also been getting it done in the Champions League. Bale has two assists and one goal in two CL appearances as well as a whopping 8.2 match rating. In an important match against Dortmund, Bale picked up a goal and an assist to seal the deal against the German Powerhouse BVB. Gareth has been very, very good in all competitions this year.
Now, I am not trying to push any narrative here. Bale has always been a tremendous talent, just him and being healthy aren’t exactly synonymous with each other. Only time will tell if he stays healthy, but with his current form, once his teammates pick their slack up, he could be at double-digit goals and assists by January.
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