Real Madrid have won all their pre-season matches, but more importantly, the players have started the season in much better shape than expected.
Most of the players in question have seen an uptick in performances when compared to the way they ended last season, and although it is still pre-season, and they probably don’t mean anything, it is still a good sign to have – especially for those who have had tough times in the last year.
Dean Huijsen is one of those players. The Spaniard started his Real Madrid career off in the best possible way, becoming the progressive passer everyone needed in their defense. He defended well, too, and looked like an improvement over his counterparts in certain parts of his game.
However, Huijsen hit a really bad mid-season slump, and since then, has not quite been the same until now. He ended last season much better than some of his performances leading up to that part, but it still was not the Huijsen that Real Madrid paid all that money for.
Dean Huijsen could be a floor-raiser for Real Madrid
Ever since he’s taken Sergio Ramos’ fabled number four jersey, though, he has looked seriously impressive. Everyone knows how well he performed during Real Madrid’s friendly win over Ferencvaros, but against Schalke, he looked just as good, if not better.
The young defender scored the second goal of the match to double his side’s lead, before almost scoring a third just 12 minutes later. Defensively, he looked solid whenever he was asked to intervene, and his passing was crisp, solid and some of it indirectly resulted in one of the best team-goals Real Madrid have scored in recent months.
Huijsen, if he is able to remain fit and consistent, is easily one of the best defenders in the world, but that is a humongous if. Being consistent is a lot easier said than done, but with Huijsen, it is slightly frustrating because every single fan sees the potential in him when he plays well.
He is still only 21 years old, though, and will have a lot of time to improve under Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese manager has shown to be quite fond of Huijsen in the past, and hopefully, that is something that drives the Spaniard to be better than he was last season.
It looks like Huijsen will be the starting choice centre-back for Real Madrid, at least in the first few games of the season, and he better keep going the way he has started this campaign off.
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