Real Madrid: 5 takeaways from a brilliant comeback win over Valencia

David Alaba is proving the doubters wrong

Back when Alaba first joined Real Madrid, everyone was pretty excited about the signing. But, there was a large section of fans (including me) that was worried about his defensive stability. Would he be able to perform well as a centre-back? Would he struggle because of his tendencies to strive forward? Would he be able to hold his own against the best attackers in the world? People said time will tell. It hasn’t been too long, but yes, he’s been able to do everything right so far.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I really thought that Alaba had a fantastic game against Valencia. He was the best defender on the pitch, his passing was near-perfect, his defensive positioning was very good even though he went up the pitch at times. He was able to recover well, and was very strong in the air for Real Madrid, bar a couple of occasions. Alaba had five clearances, eight recoveries, one completed tackle, one block, and 11 presses.

Statistics don’t even tell the full story, as he really was doing fantastic as a centre-back. Hopefully, he continues to do so, because, with the way these past few games have gone lately, Real should take all the help and quality they can get in defense.