Real Madrid: 3 players who must step up after loss to Alcoyano

Real Madrid fell well below their standards in Wednesday night’s 2-1 loss to Alcoyano in the Copa del Rey. This defeat is right up there with Real’s worst losses in the competition over the past couple of decades, and it just might take the cake as their worst loss – among too many – in the 2020-2021 season.

Let’s take a look at three players who need to step up after this humbling defeat to a third-division side in Spain.

Real Madrid DM Casemiro

We begin with Casemiro. Although he was not the most egregiously poor performer in this match, he still should have done better. You would have expected Casemiro, the only world-class player in the starting lineup for this match, to have dominated and set the tone for Real Madrid. He did not. In fact, he was the one culpable for Alcoyano’s winning goal in stoppage time.

Although Casemiro had been excellent defensively over the past month, the issues from his poor start to the campaign have lingered offensively. His passing accuracy and overall composure on the ball have been quite woeful, even when you consider that these aspects of his play in midfield have long been weaknesses.

Casemiro needs to be better. Real Madrid rely on him so much as the anchor in the midfield, and it was disheartening watching him misplace passes and even fail to dominate defensively in this Copa del Rey loss.