These observations — where I look at Real Madrid’s history, its players on loan, Castilla, tactical tidbits, and other relevant thoughts — are now a regular thing. All previous editions can be found
here.Here is a new thing I’m committing to this season: Five semi-informal bullet points after each game.
Also, check out the post-game podcast where Mehedi and I break down the win (and more) for 51 minutes:
- Last night I took more notes on Yan Diomande than I think I’ve ever taken on a single player. I was fascinated, even riveted, about his performance. It wasn’t necessarily because it was the best performance I’ve ever seen — far from it — but he was so useful, so good, and displayed so much potential in his cameo that it was worth noticing.
In other words, Diomande’s performance was extremely eventful and 90% of it was really good. The
10% that was bad: He he has knack of lunging in when opposing wingers take him on when he should be more steadfast in keeping those wingers in front of him and holding his position. If that habit is taken out of his game, he’ll get burned less.
There was also some naivety on his part on Elche’s second goal. While Marc Cucurella was the one who initially gave the ball away, Diomande could’ve helped the team better by tracking Josan Ferrandez.
But then there was the other 90% which is what I’d like to focus on: That dude runs himself into the earth for Jose Mourinho, is a two-way freak on the wing, and can break lines. He is equally good on both wings,
You really saw him come alive when Vinicius Jr was taken out and Diomande shifted to the left. You may have noticed that you didn’t notice Brahim Diaz at all last night on the right, and that’s because all the play was funnelled through Diomande on the opposite side.
My lazy hypothesis: Diomande came into a new team that had four established attacking stars that have seniority. The more comfortable he gets with his teammates and the more he puffs his chest out, the more we’ll see him dust wing-backs and produce goals.
- Within one minute of this game kicking off, Trent Alexander-Arnold slung a ball down the wing to Arda Güler, which led to Kylian Mbappe nearly scoring.
I bring this up because over and over again, Denzel Dumfries has been in that exact position but can’t execute that pass. Trent does it blindfolded.
There are a lot of things Trent is not good at, and they’ve virtually all on the defensive end. But that pass? That’s his money-maker. I thought he took up excellent positions in the first half, in the right half space, where his dribbling and passing opened up space for Kylian Mbappe and Diomande.
I think Dumfries will start against Atletico Madrid. I understand the concerns with Trent’s defense. I stand by what I’ve said in the previous few weeks: Trent needs continuity as a starter. If not, don’t expect him to get to his best.
- How many x-rated sounds do you make when Arda Güler dribbles out of pressure or picks apart the defense with a visionary pass?
Yes.
Güler comfortably leads Europe in chances created, and the only two reasons he might not lead the entire continent in assists by the end of the campaign is because: 1) His teammates won’t finish chances; and / or 2) Mourinho won’t start him every game.
- I wrote about the second half issues after the Rayo Vallecano game:
I will add some more thoughts to that, because the Elche game deserves a fresh take on this. I think everything I said above was true, but will add that last night, it wasn’t merely a fatigue issue. Mourinho did make all five of his subs, but three of them were almost too late, and there is some luck that Carlos Espi scored despite him coming in with just three minutes to go. How many times are we going to expect Espi to bail us out with only a few minutes to prove himself? And why would we risk that, and… Why wouldn’t we expect him to score more goals if we simply increased his minutes and pumped balls into him? He’s currently at one goal per 13 minutes. Yes, that’s insane, and yes, that’s not sustainable, but yes — he clearly has the ability to fuck shit up in the most complimentary way possible.
With that out of the way, I chalk up the second half issues to mental struggles rather than mere physical struggles. The press was good against Elche in the first half, but not balls-to-the-walls enough to suffer a physical break down. The bigger concern is that the players subconsciously fall into a trap that the game is dusted and they can coast. ‘2-0 up against Elche? 3-0 up against Rayo? Let’s just sit back and end this game 10-0 by hitting them with counter attacks with their defense open’. These approaches only work if you’re truly ready to put your foot on the opponents’ neck. Passivity will lead to complacency and invite pressure.
- Vinicius Jr.
This has been discussed to death ad nauseam. Vinicius is a shell of himself. Let’s analyze what he is at this stage of his career (even if it might, hopefully, only be temporary): He is a player who works really hard but can’t dribble past anyone. Prime Vinicius would undress the best right-backs in the world. Current Vinicius gets locked up by Hector Bellerin, Buba Sangaré, and Dejan Ljubičić. Last night, he didn’t complete a single dribble.
Our friends over at La Pausa had an interesting observation:
I love Vinicius’s defensive effort. I also think the bar is low if we’re leaning on such basic things (that are very important, don’t get me wrong).
Jose Mourinho is in a really tough situation. On one hand he is desperately trying to bring the best version of Vinicius back; on the other hand time is ticking on how much he can wait when there are other hungry attackers who are producing offensively who also work hard defensively.
