Real Madrid: 5 burning questions after emphatic El Derbi win

Is Casemiro back to his best?

Casemiro has been one of the most-discussed Real Madrid players in the 2020-2021 season, but the discussion wasn’t largely positive. After a brilliant 2020-2021 campaign in which the Brazilian defensive midfielder was one of Real’s three best players alongside Karim Benzema and Thibaut Courtois, he had seemingly regressed to start the fresh season.

Happenstance? Circumstance? Fatigue? Many questions were asked, but perhaps Casemiro has already answered them with his recent performances.

After playing reasonably well against Borussia Monchengladbach, albeit with a couple of horrible “air balls” to a so-called “friend in the stands”, Casemiro put together his best performance of the campaign in El Derbi.

Aside from one spotty giveaway near his own box, Casemiro was great with his passing and completed nearly 90 percent of his attempts. He was excellent in transition defense, supporting his teammates and covering up any gaps when Sergio Ramos either joined the attack or gave chase to a midfielder. And Case essentially took Joao Felix out of the match, which was crucial to Real’s clean sheet victory.

Of course, Casemiro scored the opener, too, heading home uncontested after another great corner from Toni Kroos.

An in-form Casemiro means everything to Real Madrid. And if you want to see exactly why, look no further than El Derbi. He was the official Man of the Match for a reason.