Though the season remained trophy-less for Los Blancos, it can’t be discounted that they played through unprecedented circumstances. With more injuries than goals in the league, Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid pulled off a performance that nowhere could be predicted after that horrid Champions League group stage run or the wide gap in points that opened up between them and the leaders, Atletico Madrid at halfway through the league.
Talking of the squad, the Royal Whites didn’t spend a single penny throughout the transfer windows rather they looked for players, deep into the youth system and picked out gems like Miguel Gutierrez and Antonio Blanco. On that note, here are the top five Real Madrid players this season.
5. Carlos Casemiro
The defensive midfielder, Carlos Casemiro has been an important player for Real Madrid over the past couple of seasons. This season too, he lived up to his increased importance and has officially been named into Madrid’s ‘holy trinity’ in midfield by Madridistas.
The Brazilian, reputed to be one of the best defensive midfielders on the planet at the moment has further substantiated that claim with his range of performances this season. He bagged 45 appearances in all competitions this season for the White outfit with 34 of them coming in the league. He has played for 3,731 minutes this season second to only Thibaut Courtois, per WhoScored.com.
Though it’s not positive to takeaway, Casemiro also remained the second-highest scorer for Real Madrid this season with seven goals, second to Karim Benzema’s 30. He has a total of 12 goal contributions which included five assists, per WhoScored. He also put up MOTM performances four times this season.
On the defensive end of things, he lived up to the job of being the first line of defense for the Whites. He averaged more than two interceptions and tackles per match among other defensive interventions. Passing-wise, this has been a season of tremendous growth for the 29-year-old, with particular improvement in long balls.