What is the story about?
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.
- I think it’s time we put Arda Güler in a different conversation than we’re used to having him in. He’s not some kind of cute promising player — a guy who does nice things and is pretty good. No, this guy is raising the roof of the team right now. Last season, he was already statistically one of the best creators in Europe and was on pace to be the league’s leading assister had he stayed healthy. In the pre-season, he was Real Madrid’s best player again. On the opening match-day against Espanyol, he levitated and was the team’s best player. Seven key passes in 63 minutes is not a normal thing. Granted, some of those were set-pieces, but that’s also a testament to his set-piece delivery. He dropped deep to help escape pressure several times and played some sexy through-balls. Some of his touches in tight spaces were unbelievable. Last season he arrived. This season he’s setting the bar even higher for himself.
- Last summer, I had declared that I was worried about Vinicius Jr. It was genuine concern. He hadn’t looked right in half-a-year, and his confidence taking players on — as well as his dribbling efficiency — had fallen off a cliff. Is it extra concerning that one year on, I’m concerned again / still? He’s been getting locked up by virtually everyone, including Clemens Riedel and Dejan Ljubičić. His touches look leg-heavy and physically he looks sluggish. I had mentioned during pre-season that I won’t care much about his pre-season form so long as he shows up for the opening matchday against Espanyol. That didn’t happen. Is there time to get back to his best? Of course. But if he keeps performing poorly, he shouldn’t retain his untouchable status on the field. Which leads me to point #3:
- Why is anyone untouchable at all after two years of mediocrity? The argument against subbing off players like Vinicius and Mbappe has always been ‘well, you wouldn’t sub off Cristiano Ronaldo if he was playing poorly, would you?‘ I get it: These players, even if playing poorly, can still have one moment of magic in the 90th minute. Fair. Question: Are we absolutely sure that Vinicius has more moments of magic than Güler at this stage after a two-year sample size, or are we basing this on past memories? Counter: This was game one. Mourinho will rotate more in subsequent games. This feeds into point #4:
- Kylian Mbappe was better than Vinicius, but not by much. Of his 10 shots, only three of them were on target. He got into good positions but his shooting was poor. He, like Vinicius, lost possession 15 times — a couple of them in deeper positions where he made the wrong pass or attempted a risky dribble. Generally, Mbappe’s overall form is so good that you wouldn’t be worried about him, but this was a rare circumstance where both him and Vinicius couldn’t produce at the same time, and getting games like that every now and then are ok — that’s why you need a deep squad and players like Carlos Espi and Jude Bellingham to provide goals regularly so the dependence on the two stars up front are lessened.
- We got a very strong cameo from Ibrahima Konaté. It was very impressive to see him shoe away Espanyol’s attackers like they were some kind of annoying gnats. He ended up squashing all of them. It’s almost impossible to match his physicality. Both him and Dean Huijsen seem to compliment each other well — but they need better defensive support from the midfielders.
- BONUS 1: Jude Bellingham picking up right where he left off from the World Cup was beautiful to see. The best version of this team has both Bellingham and Güler in the starting XI together. I will live and die by that sword.
- BONUS 2:
