Real Madrid made their return to club football in fantastic fashion as they picked up an exciting 4-1 win at Granada on matchday 13 of La Liga. Goals from Marco Asensio, Nacho Fernandez, Vinicius Jr and Ferland Mendy made sure that Real were in the driving seat at all times, as they now travel to Moldova for their Champions League clash against Sheriff.
It was a dominant display from start to finish, and there were rarely any hiccups during the game. Of course, I would have preferred to see Real Madrid keep a clean sheet for once, but a win is more important than everything else.
What are my takeaways from this game?
This Real Madrid performance was so fun to watch!
Truth be told, even though Real have been winning a lot of games this season, they still haven’t performed at their best in most of those wins, and have relied on heroics from Vinicius Junior or Karim Benzema for goal-scoring exploits.
This game was a breath of fresh air in that regard. Real escaped Getafe’s press so effortlessly, created chances seamlessly and put them away ruthlessly.
One thing to note is that both Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior had mediocre first-half performances, but the team still played very well, and was leading at half-time without really requiring their help in the build-up for the first two goals. In the second half, Vinicius showed a lot of improvement, but the rest of the team played well enough to keep the load off him.
Casemiro had a great game. Like Kevin said in the player ratings, he more than made up for his mistake by making a bunch of incredible passes. Like, I haven’t seen a string of passes like this from Casemiro in years. Great stuff.
The defense was solid as well, particularly David Alaba. He made sure that the team doesn’t concede any more goals, and had a near-perfect game. He fits this team like a glove.
Oh, and did you watch that third goal? Gorgeous.
Toni Kroos doesn’t get talked about enough
Many people put Toni Kroos in their list of best midfielders in the world, and he deserves that. Yet, I think that we simply don’t talk enough about how he helps the team in so many different ways, by using so many simple moves.
There isn’t a single better passer in the world than Toni Kroos. There is no one that plays like him, which is why it’ll be so hard to replace him. Most of what he does can be seen in statistics, but you have to see his game to truly decipher how special he actually is.
Kroos had another fantastic game on Sunday, it could be his best of the season, in my opinion. He was seen sitting in front of the two centre-backs and helping Real play seamlessly through Granada’s press. He doesn’t think twice before making a pass. He doesn’t have to, because he knows where it’s supposed to go. Granada tried to force him into mistakes by having a player or two try to put him under pressure. Kroos easily waltzed through it and went about his business.
Kroos helps the whole team in many ways. For Vinicius, he has a bunch of exceptional long passes that would keep him running all day. Casemiro has a lot of space, and a lot less pressing to deal with whenever the German is around. We can talk about him all day. We won’t, but we can.
Four key passes, two assists, 76 passes, 97.4% passing accuracy, seven out of eight completed long balls. His relatively simple game works in a lot of mysterious ways. I don’t think there’s ever going to be a player like him again, and I cannot emphasize this enough. God bless Toni frickin’ Kroos.
We can’t fall for this version of Asensio, not this soon
This was probably Asensio’s best game on the right in three whole years, as pointed out by my fellow colleague. He was active throughout the game. He took on opponents and dribbled past them with ease, he switched to the left at times, he made a ton of off-ball runs, one of which contributed to the goal that he scored. The Spaniard came close to scoring on a couple other occasions, and in general it was a very pleasing performance from Asensio.
But, this wasn’t his first great performance in three years. It has happened before, and each time it happens, fans are given the hope that they’ll see this type of performance every other week. Then, Asensio doesn’t deliver, and the fans are left disappointed once again.
The issue isn’t with his talent, it never was. He has always been a freakishly talented player. But, there are a few things that keep talented players from reaching their potential. Hard work and consistency.
Asensio is probably one of the most inconsistent-yet-talented players in the world. Consistency is what differentiates the great from the good. The sooner Asensio realises that, the better it will be for him in the long run. Ancelotti mentioned that he can be a starter in his squad. So now, he needs to show this version of Asensio far more often than not. If that happens, only then we should expect the same from Asensio in every other game. Credit where it’s due, though, he really was incredible on Sunday. Loved everything about his performance.
He will definitely have good games in the future, but he needs to turn the sparks into an actual fire. Then we’ll talk.