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.
Happy holidays, and congratulations on making it to the end of a horrible (Real Madrid) calendar year. Here’s to hoping the New Year hits reset on the team (in a good way), and here are four observations to close 2025:
Chill chill Dean Huijsen
Real Madrid’s backline has been decimated with injuries. One of the men signed primarily to lift the team’s ball progression — Trent Alexander-Arnold — has barely played due to injury. Leaders Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao are sidelined. Antonio Rüdiger is there and experienced — but overly aggressive and struggles finding the right outlets. Raul Asencio is inexperienced and often playing out of position. Fran Garcia is a ticking time bomb. The reliance is now on Dean Huijsen, and Huijsen is playing like the ball is a flaming hot potato.
That shouldn’t be the case. Huijsen is supposed to be one of the chief ball progressors and caretakers of the ball. Huijsen attempts and makes a ton of progressive passes, but gives the ball away prolifically as well. His giveaways are especially brutal, because he’s often the last man back, and when he coughs up possession, the team coughs up a breakaway or a big chance. Huijsen is too slow on the break to catch up to runners in transition when that happens. He dances on the high line with risky passes and unnecessary verticality.
Huijsen completes just 85.3% of his passes — low for a center-back. His passing percentage is in the 28th percentile among center-backs in Europe.
Even when his passes hit their mark, they sometimes put the receiver under unnecessary pressure:
Huijsen hasn’t been as advertised, yet. He was very good in the Club World Cup. He’s dropped off significantly since taking a battering — physically and emotionally — against Atletico Madrid earlier this season.
He is launching long balls carelessly:
There is no need for that left-footed heave. One of the most dangerous things to do is to launch a cross-field pass right across your own box. It’s inviting the opposing team into threatening positions. Huijsen can slip in Rodrygo on the right wing, or if he things the angle doesn’t work, it’s better to hit it down his own wing, far away from danger, where Sevilla can’t hurt you immediately.
Real Madrid need Huijsen to get it together in these games where Militao is injured and the team desperately needs defensive leadership.
Arda Güler, where does he fit?
The challenge is still getting both Arda Güler and Jude Bellingham in their best position, without one of them taking a backseat. And that’s not even factoring Fede Valverde, who suffers the most if both Güler and Bellingham are on the field.
At some point someone will have to sacrifice. Güler is good deep, but better behind the first line of attack. Valverde is at his best as an active box-to-box brute who can drive the ball forward, shoot, and fly back to defend. Bellingham is at his best almost anywhere (more on Bellingham later).
Xabi Alonso’s vision from the beginning was to put Güler deeper than Bellingham. That’s what he did in the Club World Cup and it worked. That’s what he did in El Clasico and it worked (apart from one very costly mistake from Güler deep which led to a Barcelona goal). When Bellingham was sidelined to start the season, Güler took an advanced role and that worked too.
But with Bellingham back, Güler is being asked to play the Toni Kroos role again. Against Alaves, he and Bellingham shared double pivot duties. Against Talavera, it was him and Dani Ceballos. Güler picked the ball up deep and looked for vertical options.
Güler can play those dagger balls to Kylian Mbappe from deeper positions:
In both those clips, Güler is under no pressure — a natural symptom playing against Talavera and not Barcelona or Atletico Madrid.
The question is: Who will sacrifice for the team? Alonso, and any coach, need to build their midfield around their best midfielder, Bellingham. No player, not Valverde, not Güler — not even Nico Paz if he arrives next season — will dislodge that. One or two players will have to sacrifice their ideal role.
Yes, Jude Bellingham is still the best at everything
If you still don’t think Jude Bellingham can play as an 8, watch the entirety of this clip:
This is Bellingham, playing in a double-pivot, operating in a deeper zone, pulling strings — controlling tempo and taking care of the ball. He moves between the lines to ensure his team is never abandoned if they need a pass. He looks for openings, He evades pressure. He finds the right pass every time. After about 60 seconds, something finally opens up: A pass out wide to Fede Valverde, who plays a through ball to Rodrygo in the right half-space.
It’s hard to find someone of Bellingham’s ilk in the world of football. Cross-positional players who play elite in multiple different zones are rare. Bellingham is scheme-proof — versatile to fit into any blueprint regardless of who is already in the team. If the team needs him to be Karim Benzema, he will be that. Now the team might need him to be more Toni Kroos than Isco.
Real Madrid are desperately needing someone to control the play. They have creators, line-breaking dribblers, and the best finisher in Europe. They need an organizer who can sit deeper, play vertical passes, be quick in transition, but also be calibrated enough to slow the game down and chill everyone’s blood.
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Against Alaves, whilst sitting deeper, he still did everything at an elite level: winning challenges in midfield, slinging an assist, playing with verticality, counter-pressing, controlling tempo, and doing deep defensive work. He did it again against Sevilla, while scoring the winning goal and being the last man back defending more than once. It would be interesting to see him operate in a double pivot next to Eduardo Camavinga or Fede Valverde. Valverde shone in a double pivot next to Kroos two years ago because Kroos played as the primary ball progressor. Valverde’s double pivot showing alongside Aurelien Tchouameni was less successful earlier this season because Tchouameni is not Kroos. Could Bellingham take on that burden?
But problems still arise when Bellingham does everything. Part of is that Real Madrid need him to be elite in more than one position. They need a controller, a presser, a creator, a box target, and a defender in transition. He can’t be all of those things if the team is to build a more rigid defensive system. Other players need to step up so that Bellingham can laser in and focus on one role.
Part of what makes Bellingham so special is how much he can set up his teammates even playing in deeper zones. Look at his assist to Mbappe in El Clasico, or his assist to Mbappe against Alaves. He does not need to be in the final third to play the dagger pass — especially if his running back is Mbappe, who can latch onto through balls better than anyone on the planet.
It’s good to see Bellingham performing at his best levels again after playing through shoulder pain all of last season. Can Alonso figure out where the team needs him the most?
Rodrygo Goes: The return? Or a purple patch?
It’s been a long time since Rodrygo Goes looked as good as he did against Manchester City earlier in December. Statistically speaking, his peak season was 2022-2023. In the two-year range surrounding that season, he was a reliable presser, defensive tracker, line-breaker, and third-choice goalscorer.
For the last one-and-a-half seasons, Rodrygo cooled significantly. Last season, he took a backseat to Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe, and despite playing regularly alongside them, was asked to do more defensive work. The trio never meshed. The trio got blown away all season.
Rodrygo has struggled to find his feet since.
There were groans when he started alongside Vinicius Jr and Gonzalo Garcia against Manchester City in the absence of Mbappe. It had been a while since Rodrygo had offered any sort of offensive production.
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But by the end of the match, it was apparent Rodrygo was the team’s best player. It wasn’t just that he scored the team’s lone goal — a great low drive from an acute angle — but he also slung five key passes.
One game later, against Alaves away, he scored again. He may not have been as good outside that goal, but he did work hard defensively. Most recently against Sevilla, he was one of the best players on the field. His final ball continued to be impressive (six key passes), and he is dribbling with incisiveness and confidence.
His work rate off the ball has always been reliable:
Rodrygo has defensive awareness to track his man into the half-space between the right-back and center-back. It’s subtle, and should be the bare minimum. But how often have Real Madrid’s midfielders failed to track runners? The effort matters. It sets the tone and sets an example for others.
