Real Madrid this season have been super entertaining to watch. Of course, that also comes with quite a few risks, but it’s mostly been great for Los Blancos. They’ve managed to win four out of their five games (five out of six if you count the Champions League), and even though they haven’t been super convincing in many of them, they seem to get the job done usually.
Now, against Valencia, it was different. Usually, there are a set of positives from every game for Real Madrid. But this time around, there were hardly any until very late in the game. Real Madrid spent most of the second half chasing the game, and just managed to scrape together a win towards the very end of the game.
Goals from Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr, who assisted each other’s goals as well, sealed the three points in a very chaotic 2-1 win. It was a game that had a LOT of fouls, yellow cards, tactic-shifting substitutions, and nervy moments from the first minute to the last. It was a solid battle of two of the best teams in La Liga so far, and it definitely had a lot of lows for Real Madrid. The team keeps getting away with wins now, but they’ll need to fix their issues if they want to make deep runs in the competitions.
Ancelotti seems to have found his impact subs
Camavinga is just a gift that keeps on giving, no matter what team he’s playing against, how much pressure is on him to perform, or how much pressure is on the team to win the game. I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again: This kid is JUST 18 years old. He’s younger than me! Each time he’s brought into the game, there’s a dynamic shift. If Real aren’t playing well, his introduction changes things for the better. He was asked to replace Modric, and form a double pivot with Fede Valverde, a sight that we better get used to.
Camavinga came into the game and immediately started off on the front foot. He was trying to make things happen on one end, and did his best to stop things from happening on the other.He had five recoveries in the 24 minutes he played. He also had two blocks, two tackles and three passes into the attacking third. The attack was much more fluid when he was on the pitch.
As for the other sub, Rodrygo, he’s great as well. He had one of the performances that would generally go under the radar, but he was impactful for Los Blancos. Whenever the Brazilian’s on the pitch, he spreads the defense out. There are much more gaps inside the opponent’s defense to exploit because of the threat that he poses on the flanks. For the second time in a week, Ancelotti’s subs did the trick for Real Madrid, and even though it’s not the most ideal way to win, I’m not complaining much.
Lucas Vazquez proves yet again that he is not a defender
Makeshift basically means “acting as an interim and temporary measure”. Temporary, interim, being the keywords. It implies it may or may not be good for the long term, usually the latter. Real Madrid were in a dire need of someone taking up the right-back spot last season. Dani Carvajal was injured, Odriozola was not preferred by Zinedine Zidane, and Nacho was playing as a centre-back because there were only two senior CBs available.
Zidane chose to start Vazquez during that time. And he actually did really well, I won’t lie. Vazquez performed well when the team needed him, but there were many instances even then that showed that he’s not that good of a defender to take up that much responsibility on a regular basis.
Real Madrid didn’t seem to think so, and they offered him a contract extension. They also loaned out Odriozola and didn’t sign a backup yet again. Relying on a winger to cover for an injury-prone defender is not something that should be done, and yet, it is.
Lucas Vazquez replaced Dani Carvajal early on in the game. He did not have a good time dealing with Valencia’s high intensity. He was responsible for the goal that Valencia scored, and he took some long-range shots which had no chance of ending up in the back of the net.
He had one of his worst performances in a Real Madrid shirt, and the club should’ve anticipated that given he’s not a true right-back. There were funds available, and they should’ve been spent on a back-up option. It’s weird to see why they weren’t.
Vazquez is probably going to start more games than not from now on, depending on the severity of Carvajal’s injury. I hope he somehow improves and plays like he did last season, but I don’t know about this one.
Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema are having an incredible time at Real Madrid
Where do I even begin? Karim Benzema has six goals and five assists in five games for Real Madrid. Vinicius Jr has five goals and an assist in five games, a couple of which were substitute appearances. It’s frightening to think about what they can do this season if they keep this up.
Vinicius Jr was a threat to Valencia’s goal each time he had the ball, which was far more in the second half than in the first. Karim Benzema didn’t have the best of games either, because Valencia did well in isolating him, which forced him to switch to the flanks more often than usual.
But all that doesn’t matter. Even if you’re having a bad game, you can have a huge impact on the game later on, if you’re good enough. It takes minutes. Seconds. That was the story with Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr. They both scored and assisted a goal, and led Real Madrid to victory once again. If Los Blancos are to win any sort of silverware this season, it will be heavily reliant on the performers of these two superstars. Y’all remember when people used to say, “If only Vinicius Jr wasn’t this bad at finishing”? Well, now they’ll see.
Casemiro’s struggles could’ve cost Real Madrid the game
I’m a fan of Casemiro. I think he’s a fantastic defensive presence, and Real Madrid are lucky to have a player like him in their squad. But sometimes, Casemiro is the one person that stresses me out the most during a Real Madrid game.
There are so many good things you can say about Casemiro, and for the most part, you’d be right. But he’s a liability with the ball, and Ancelotti needs to realise that. He’s an even bigger liability when it’s against a team with a very high press. For example, against Valencia on Sunday, or against Manchester City in 2019-20’s Champions League, or on so many other occasions.
Zidane used to send Casemiro forward and have him act as a decoy, or a presence inside the box. But, doing that now would mean Ancelotti sacrifices even more on the defensive end. So the Brazilian’s just sort of everywhere, and when he’s struggling, you can see that on every single zone of the pitch.
Casemiro had a terrible game. There were sequences in the defensive third where he just gave the ball away carelessly on many occasions. He took many shots from outside the box, none of which was good enough to threaten Valencia’s goal, and it ultimately resulted in giving away possession. There are two midfielders operating when there’s a high press against Real Madrid. Usually, Kroos is there, but he wasn’t against Valencia. All creative responsibilities fell on Modric’s shoulders, as Valverde was a bit more explosive and a little less creative. You can’t trust Casemiro to do all that much when his weaknesses are shelled out by teams that target him as the main source of ball retrieval.
Once Ancelotti subbed him off, Real Madrid looked much better on the ball. Yes, they lost a ball-winning machine, but Camavinga was still on the pitch, and he was doing well defensively (he actually had more defensive contributions than Casemiro) as well as offensively. So, one option for Ancelotti is to play a double pivot of Camavinga with some other midfielder and have a creative hub operate in front of them. That would help with the defensive side, while also not losing out on the offensive side.
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.