Real Madrid have had a couple of stinkers in the 2021-2022 season despite their overall brilliance, but this performance on Sunday against Getafe was their worst one yet.
Los Blancos surrendered an early goal to Enes Unal after a terrible defensive error from Eder Militao. From there, they could not really create anything in the box. The front three was abysmal, the subs did not make a difference, and even Toni Kroos struggled.
Here are the player ratings from Real Madrid’s 1-0 loss to start 2022 against Getafe at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez.
GK Thibaut Courtois
Thibaut Courtois is one of the few players who can say that he played well. If it were not for Courtois coming up the pitch quickly and being confident on the ball, Real Madrid would have lost the game by multiple goals. That said, he himself made a poor play, nearly gifting Nemanja Maksimovic a goal that the veteran midfielder could not convert.
Rating: 6.5
LB Ferland Mendy
Ferland Mendy was not terrible in the first half, but Carlo Ancelotti took him out to get more attacking from Marcelo. As usual, the former Lyon man leaves something to be desired with his attacking work, and he had too many sloppy passes to Rodrygo Goes and Karim Benzema. Mendy’s offensive struggles are a major storyline to watch in 2022.
Rating: 5.0
LB Marcelo
Marcelo entered the pitch at left back, and while he was an upgrade on Ferland Mendy offensively just as Ancelotti anticipated, he didn’t really make a difference for Los Blancos.
Rating: 6.0
CB David Alaba
That may have been David Alaba’s worst performance thus far in what has been a good start to life at Real Madrid. While it was Militao who gave up the goal with an awful error, Alaba had three mistakes that could have easily been punished by Getafe. He made a few nice interventions, but even those plays were undone by some poor passing. Had Getafe been more clinical, we could be talking more about how bad Alaba was.
Rating: 3.5
CB Eder Militao
Aside from that early error to gift Unal the opener, Militao was decent. But he wasn’t great. And more importantly, that error was so inexcusably poor that it has to knock Militao’s grade. Hopefully he got his mistake out of his system for 2022, because that was the clear lowlight of what has been a tremendous season from him. Even with that error, he is still one of the best defenders in LaLiga.
Rating: 4.0
RB Lucas Vazquez
Lucas Vazquez was sacrificed in the last 10-15 minutes, as Real went all-out with Peter Federico to complete an attacking quartet up top. Though Vazquez is usually a punching bag, Madridistas cannot go after him in this one. He made some nice plays, finishing with three key passes, two dribbles completed, and four fouls drawn. It is not a stretch to say that Vazquez was Real’s best attacking player, though, of course, that is a problem in and of itself.
Rating: 6.5
CM Toni Kroos
Toni Kroos worked hard defensively, had a couple of quality moments as an attacker, and completed 96 percent of his passes including 8 of 10 long balls. So the surface stats are similar to Kroos’ usual output. But with the team having so much possession, Kroos did very little with it comparatively. He was not involved enough, woefully inaccurate on his set pieces, and generally out of sync. It was uncharacteristic to see how many times Kroos was unable to lead attackers on their runs. He did not play progressively. When Kroos struggles a bit, the rest of the team suffers that much more.
Rating: 5.5
DM Casemiro
Casemiro was agonizingly close to scoring, hitting a technically perfect shot that David Soria saved expertly. He also led the team with six tackles. But despite these positives, Casemiro was too slow defensively on multiple occasions. He failed to provide good passing options for the defenders and was sloppy with his own passing in decisive areas. Despite leading the team with 93 pass attempts, he completed fewer than 80 percent of them. That is horrible, and it was an underrated reason for why Real played so poorly.
Rating: 5.0
CM Luka Modric
The only outfield player who was truly good in this one. Luka Modric continues to blow minds with his all-around play. Unlike his teammates, even when he did misplace a pass, he was quick to recover for his own error instead of complaining to a teammate, the ref, or staying on the ground. And yes, a handful of players did all of those things.
Modric was the closest man to scoring on two occasions, denied by Soria first and then the bar. He was exquisite at times, on a day in which his teammates completely failed in so many ways. Modric deserved better from the rest of the XI. He gave his all, whereas so many, especially the forwards, gave zero.
Rating: 7.5
LW/RW Rodrygo Goes
This was Rodrygo Goes’ big chance, and he blew it. He made head-scratching passes that seemed to be to nobody in particular. Rodrygo was far too weak on the ball against Getafe. This performance was everything Rodrygo cannot be as a left winger if he is to continue to get these special opportunities at this position. The young forward was lethargic in one-on-ones. He had some nice short passes to Karim Benzema, but that’s not nearly enough against an all-out defensive team like Getafe. Real Madrid needed their left winger to seize the moment, and Rodrygo did the opposite. Somehow, he was even worse on the right side before being pulled off for Mariano Diaz.
Rating: 3.0
LW Eden Hazard
Eden Hazard was an upgrade on the other wingers, but you never got the feeling the Belgian would do anything important against Getafe. He just does not offer enough quality one-on-one. Hazard can no longer explode past defenders, and Getafe did not respect him when he was dribbling face-to-face. On the bright side, Hazard drew a couple of dangerous fouls, finishing with four fouls against him.
Rating: 5.0
CF Karim Benzema
The worst on the pitch. Go look up how many times he lost the ball in this one. You can almost guarantee Real Madrid won’t win if Karim plays this poorly, so it’s a good thing we have never seen him play this poorly in a long time. Benzema did not register a single shot on target or key pass. Meanwhile, he made some selfish decisions and some truly abysmal passes. The No. 9 was off the mark in so many ways, both on and off the ball. His decision-making was shockingly below par, and he was not on the same wavelength as his teammates.
Rating: 2.5
RW Marco Asensio
A horrible performance. Real Madrid fans need to quit this charade and refrain from overreacting when Asensio scores a great goal or has a big game. Asensio offers little beyond his shooting and will be nothing more than a squad player, if he stays at all, in 2022-2023. There have been more bad performances than good, and this one against Getafe was outright shocking. It was the worst of Asensio. Anonymous, no threat. Nothing. He offered nothing. Hence why Carlo subbed him at the half for Eden Hazard, who was not supposed to face the physical Getafe.
Rating: 3.5