Real Madrid: 5 burning questions from a 0-0 draw with Getafe

How did the Rodrygo Goes experiment go?

Not well. Let’s just be up front about it, because there’s no point in praising a player for effort when you don’t get bonus points for effort. Rodrygo Goes should have never been put in this position, and Real Madrid really should have given Antonio Blanco his debut from the start. (We’ll get to Blanco later.)

Rodrygo started in midfield for Real Madrid at Getafe with Fede Valverde out, Casemiro suspended, and Toni Kroos rested. The Brazilian has zero experience playing in midfield. He is a versatile forward who has started on the left and right for Real, but he has never started a meaningful game in midfield. And it showed.

The man looked completely lost out there. He had no idea what he was doing. When he was on the ball, he was looking to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible, forcing short passes to Luka Modric that required the Croatian to quickly figure something out for the team.

Defensively, Rodrygo was even worse. He failed to close down so many passing lanes. It was too easy for Getafe to pick Real apart, because, aside from Modric, they had no actual midfielder. Rodrygo was the right-sided midfielder, and the experiment completely failed. Zidane should not have even tried this out. Marco Asensio would have been a better option.