Real Madrid: 5 burning questions from a 2-0 win over Granada

Is this the beginning of Marco Asensio’s turnaround?

Whereas I am critical of Isco, I have nothing but praise for Marco Asensio after his performance off the bench against Granada. Rodrygo Goes left early with a troubling injury after looking good again, so Asensio entered the pitch on the left-hand side.

Asensio was excellent and earned the Man of the Match honors. His assist opened the scoring, as he sent in a wonderful cross for Casemiro to expertly head home. Asensio’s run off the ball to latch onto Ferland Mendy’s through ball was exquisite, as was his first touch. And just moments before that assist, Asensio nearly scored the goal of the season – to match Kike Garcia’s curler on Sunday – with a backheel attempt that smashed the post.

In total, per WhoScored.com, Asensio put in four crosses and recorded three key passes. You could frequently see him tracking back to help out Mendy, and he was basically everywhere Real Madrid needed him on Matchday 15.

It was important to see Asensio working hard and producing. Now that he’s off to the races with his first goal contribution of the 2020-2021 season after several wasted chances and subpar performances, perhaps Asensio will get back to playing at the level we saw this summer.

Asensio is still an important player to Real Madrid with a lot of potential. Zinedine Zidane sang his praises recently, and Asensio may be on his way to rewarding him in the near future.