Real Madrid: 5 takeaways from an eventful 3-3 draw with Levante

This is what Gareth Bale must do

Although Real Madrid drew and surrendered three goals, their defensive negatives are fixable and not as concerning as the positives are refreshing. And Gareth Bale, who scored a goal a mere six minutes into the match, was indeed one of the positives for Los Blancos on Matchday 2.

Bale is more motivated than he’s been in years. After scoring double-digit goals for Tottenham in 2020-2021, Bale is already off to the races for Madrid. Now, Madridistas should not get too excited, since Bale scored a brace early in the 2019-2020 season and then never scored again. But since Bale played well in a friendly against Milan and in the opener against Alaves, it is not out of order for fans to get their hopes up. At least a little bit.

There’s no questioning Bale’s experience, technical quality, eye for goal, and knowledge of the game. He was a top-five player in the world at one point, of course. Bale is no longer the freakish athletic threat he once was, but he can still beat defenders one-on-one a couple of times per game as necessary, and, as we saw at Levante, his finishing remains quite strong.

That’s really all Bale needs to do. Real Madrid have been crying out for some sort of goal-scoring production and threat on the final third off the right-hand side. With his know-how and finishing, Bale can provide that. He doesn’t have to drop 8-out-of-10s or even be a consistent threat to defenses. He just has to come in, do his job, score some goals, and not be a passenger like in 2019-2020 (or like Asensio was in 2020-2021).