No, it wasn’t convincing, and it wasn’t always pretty, but Real Madrid managed its second consecutive win by just a goal. Here are my three overreactions from the 1-0 win over Real Valladolid.
Featuring a heavily rotated squad from the 3-2 win over Real Betis on Saturday night, manager Zinedine Zidane rolled out a similar, yet slightly different looking 4-4-2 to get past Real Valladolid who are now winless in its first four matches in La Liga.
Seven player who started in Seville – Karim Benzema, Luka Jovic, Fede Valverde, Sergio Ramos, Casemiro, Raphael Varane, and Thibaut Courtois – made the initial XI once again, but it was the substitutes who made the difference.
Bringing on Marco Asensio and Vinicius Junior just before the hour-mark shifted the game in Real’s favor and Vini earned his first goal of the campaign in the 65th minute with a clinical finish to beat Roberto.
Jovic’s best performance as a Real Madrid player
Far and away the most complete performance from the Serbian striker since he joined the club. Jovic may not have scored and was not on the pitch for the only goal of the game, but man was he much, much better from the weekend.
In 72 minutes against Betis, Luka totaled just 14 touches and completed 60 percent of his passes while not attempting a shot.
Today against Valladolid, in 15 fewer minutes, he had 29 touches, completed 91 percent of his passes, and had three shots. Although it would have been wonderful to see him tuck away that chance in the first half that he skied over the crossbar, it is clear that Luka Jovic is gaining momentum.
Receiving service from the fullbacks Marcelo and Alvaro Odriozola, and thanks to the tireless workrate of Federico Valverde, Jovic looked much more in sync with his teammates and actually made an impact.
This was the first time since joining the club he has started in consecutive matches and he linked up nicely with Karim Benzema as well.
I think operating out of the 4-4-2 with Benz and Jovic as the strikers is the answer this weekend against Levante as well. The chances are starting to materialize for the Serbian and we fans have been waiting a long, long time for Luka Jovic to show his worth.
A conundrum in the midfield?
Martin Odegaard remained on the bench tonight and instead, Real Madrid looked to Isco to play as a free-roaming attacking midfielder. Man, it did not go well.
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The Spaniard’s second appearance of the campaign looked very similar to his first as he failed to affect the flow of the match or create chances. Isco is relied upon to find pockets of space and help his teammates create goalscoring opportunities.
Well, Isco had no key passes, no shots, made just one dribble attempt, and totaled 46 touches in nearly an hour on the field. It is quite rare to see a chance creator like Isco silenced in a match like this.
Simply, he hasn’t looked like himself in his first two appearances and Odegaard appears to still be adapting to life with Los Blancos. Do we have a conundrum in the middle of the park with Toni Kroos out injured?
Yes, perhaps there is a bit of an issue with the CAM/ number 10 role with Real Madrid. However, Valverde, Luka Modric, and Casemiro look spritely and have been hugely influential in these first few “warm-up” league games. As a whole, I would say Real Madrid is still in good hands in the midfield. And they certainly have the depth on hand to change up personnel.
Would moving Marco Asensio centrally possibly help? Does Zidane regret selling James Rodriguez to Everton after seeing what the Colombian has already been able to do?
The big beautiful Belgian is the best in the world
In his last 51 appearances for Real Madrid across all competition, Thibaut Courtois has now registered 27 clean sheets and 125 saves. That is nothing short of remarkable.
Thibaut has been a brick wall in the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano since Real Madrid had to move there for its home matches and today showed that Thibaut still has that magic that helped him to win the Zamora trophy last season.
He tallied five saves and made a couple of point blank stops that kept his side in the match. I have to give props to Valladolid because they had several menacing attacks. Luckily, all this starting and stopping of matches and training has not affected the lanky Belgian.
Thibaut has helped Real Madrid fans forget about Keylor Navas very quickly and today made it even easier. It also helps when the team has won 12 of its last 13 La Liga matches and has not lost to a domestic opponent since early March.
Another world-class showing from the newly inducted number one!