Despite a strong start against Celta Vigo last week, Real Madrid slipped to a draw against Real Valladolid. Returning to the Bernabeu for the first time this season, there were both positives and negatives from Zinedine Zidane’s league homecoming.
James Rodriguez looked impressive
The Colombian stepped on the turf of the Santiago Bernabeu for the first time in over 800 days. Whilst he didn’t play the full 90 minutes, he was solid during the game. With James on the field, the attack was more dynamic than in recent times. The Colombian operated as ’10’ in the 4-2-3-1, popping up on the right and centrally.
Over the course of his time on the field, both he and Bale combined well, generating 8 shots between them by half time. His presence consistently allowed for movement and open lanes to pass in between the forward line, this made defending for the visitors particularly difficult with so much dynamic and free movement. Once he was removed, it seemed the attack began to fall flat. Given he had no preseason, his withdrawal coming early was little surprise, however, once he finds his feet, James could very well become a serious asset to the team.
Dani Carvajal is the biggest problem in the back-line
Despite having been a stalwart for Real in recent seasons, it has been clear that for the last couple of years, Dani Carvajal has regressed. Since his glittering form in 2016/17, the Spaniard has been hit and miss. Today’s game showed that Carvajal is still some way from his best form.
During the match against Valladolid, the fullback was largely in-effective going forward and near enough woeful when defending. He was regularly caught out of position and his choice to desert his position was what led to Real Madrid conceding the equaliser. Such a rough performance should be a concern, considering that most the attention typically falls at the feet of Marcelo, it is abundantly clear that Carvajal is in fact the weakest link in the team right now.
Benzema continues his fine form
Karim Benzema once again came to the fore when Real Madrid needed something special. Despite struggling in the game for the most part, the Frenchman unleashed an absolute wonderful strike to give Real the lead.
The forward now has contributed 18 goals in his last 13 Real appearances, following up his solid performance against Celta last week with yet another goal.
Moments like this could very well be what keeps Real fighting on all fronts, given that Zidane and his men are yet to welcome Eden Hazard into the mix and James Rodriguez showed positivity in his performance today, Benzema could find himself with plenty of chances being created.