Julen Lopetegui’s La Liga debut got off to a perfect start with a 2-0 win over Getafe at the Santiago Bernabeu. Here are three takeaways from the game.
Real Madrid beginning to play the Lopetegui way
During the UEFA Supercup, we saw flashes of what Real Madrid under Julen Lopetegui might look like. Against Getafe on Sunday, the Santiago Bernabeu crowd was treated to a much more complete and consistent display of Lopetegui ball than the one witnessed in Tallinn.
Los Blancos dominated the possession and penned Getafe into their own half for a majority of the 90. One notable difference between Lopetegui’s Madrid and Zidane’s Madrid is the current side’s urgency without possession. Getafe had just over 200 touches of the ball (Madrid had nearly 800) and had barely cracked 100 come to the end of first half with Dani Ceballos, Toni Kroos and Isco all pressing the Getafe midfield into mistakes and forcing them to cough up possession.
With the ball, Real was patient and switched play from flank to flank, stretching Getafe’s deep sitting defence and opening up spaces for Bale and Benzema to attack into. Its a really encouraging display with every member of the squad likely walking away with positives. Perhaps fittingly, Toni Kroos was far and away the man of the match and, on the evidence of this match, has taken to Lopetegui’s system like a duck to water.
Amongst all the positives, it is important to take this performance with a grain of salt. From the first whistle, Getafe was a black hole offensively and made life very easy for Julen Lopetegui on his debut. A much sterner test awaits Los Blancos next weekend, Girona was a place where Madrid slipped up last season and the Catalans will be much more proactive up front than Sunday’s visitors.