Yan Diomande finally had a good, well-rounded performance for Real Madrid as he scored the team's only goal in their win over Villarreal on Saturday. Diomande has only started a couple of games for Real this season, and that has primarily been because of Jose Mourinho not wanting to put too much pressure on such a young player at such an early stage of his Real Madrid career.
That has drawn criticism from fans about Diomande's minutes, as well as his general output during those minutes, which is why the onus was on him to perform against Villarreal.
It now seems like Jose Mourinho's press conference before the game, where he talked about Diomande's minutes and played down the fact that he could start against Villarreal. That was only a means to alleviate any pressure that might be on Diomande's shoulders.
In reality, he did end up starting on the left wing, and although he scored from the right, it was still a pretty good finish. Hopefully, it was the one that would make Diomande finally come to life at Real Madrid.
Yan Diomande would hope to build on this performance
This was the first time he had looked good from start to finish. He was taking on players and was trying to create chances for his teammates.
Even though everything wasn't as perfect as fans would have hoped, it was still a pretty good performance from the Ivory Coast international. Hopefully, he is able to build on his confidence and form to be an important player for Real Madrid in the next games.
With Vinicius Junior potentially missing the Clásico in two weeks' time, Diomande needs to get to his best form as soon as possible in order to contribute to Real Madrid's successes, and hopefully in the biggest game of the team's season so far as well.
Expecting a lot from the kid could also be detrimental because the club would want him to play as freely as possible so that he does not feel the pressure. Unfortunately for him, there will always be pressure when it comes to Real Madrid, Mourinho can only alleviate it so much.
The rest depends on how well Diomande plays when it is time for him to do so in a much bigger game. It will be interesting to watch as a fan either way because he is still a very special player, and one great or bad performance is not going to change the scale too much.
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