Real Madrid: Why Gareth Bale will struggle to produce like he did for Spurs

Let’s talk about the player that almost every Real Madrid fan forgot about. Gareth Bale still has a year left on his contract, and he plans to see it out before thinking about what he wants to do, where he wants to go, all that stuff.

But, he’s still a Madrid player for another season, and I can imagine that if you’re a manager not named Zinedine Zidane and you have a competent player who scored 16 goals for another team last season, in your squad, then maybe you’d want to give him a shot. Maybe you’d want to play him just because he’s there, and you want to see what he’ll do. He’s not your least favorite player ever, so you know, why not?

Gareth Bale isn’t in his prime anymore. The end of his prime came prematurely, and some could argue that we never got to see his full potential because of how frequently he got injured, which had a toll on him and slowed down his body. The pace was his speciality. He used to blitz past opponents without much trouble. He was explosive, and was very, very solid in front of goal.

Bale had 15+ goal contributions in five of his seven seasons at Real Madrid. As I just said, Bale scored 16 goals and had four assists for Tottenham last season (along with also doing well with Wales at the Euros). He didn’t even play that much for Tottenham: The Welshman only managed 1665 minutes under his belt. Yet, he scored that many goals. That’s more than a goal contribution per game on average. That is pretty good, no?

To put things in perspective, there’s no player in the whole squad bar Benzema that achieved what Bale did last season. No one except Benzema had 20+ goal contributions in all competitions. That’s absurd for a team of this stature. Surely, Bale’s return means we’d see Real Madrid score more goals than they did this season, right?

Well, yes and no.

What can we really expect from Gareth Bale at Real Madrid next season?

There are many sides to this story. You have to look at it from many perspectives to truly understand that while Gareth Bale will score some goals, his goal contribution shouldn’t be as high as it was at Tottenham last season.

First of all, let’s look at why he will score some goals, at least. Believe it or not, Gareth Bale still possesses the quality of making smart decisions in the attacking third. He’s nowhere near the level of player he once was, but he still can provide the club with something. It’ll probably not be enough though, that’s the issue.

Another thing that you may have to consider is this: Gareth Bale may just not be motivated enough to do that. His last season at Real Madrid wasn’t at all desirable. He had many mediocre performances, and his relationship with Real Madrid and its fans deteriorated due to actions on and off the pitch. From that point on, Zidane stopped playing him, and Bale stopped caring.

Finding that “passion” or urge is something that Ancelotti would want Bale to do, but it’s very unlikely that it happens. As it seems, the relationship between Bale and Real Madrid is beyond repair.

Another reason would be about what actually happens on the pitch. He was able to score that many goals in the Premier League last season only because there’s a lot of difference in how the defenses are formed in Premier League and La Liga. In Premier League, there’s more space for the wingers to cut inside and take their shot on goal. There’s less requirement of the technical ability to create space for yourself and more of the ability to hit the target.

However, in La Liga, defenses are much tighter, calmer and more compact, which forces the wingers to take defenders one-on-one. That tests the ability of the winger to create space for himself and his teammates, something Bale has lost since his decline started.

There are many ways to get some goals out of a player, though. Bale’s still good at getting at the end of crosses. He’s athletic enough to do that, and given how Real Madrid have played in the last few years, that’s something Ancelotti could use to get some production out of the Welshman.

I still don’t think the contribution would be nearly as much as it was at Tottenham, but I think that if you get the issues sorted, and his strong points studied, you could probably get a few goal contributions from Gareth Bale in his last season at Real Madrid, if that’s what you want.

And besides, Gareth is a professional at the end of the day. If he wants to continue playing at top level for another team beyond this season, he’d probably have to show potential suitors that he still has something left in the tank.