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 50 minutes.
- What do we know about Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid so far?
I would say by the end of November, we’ll have a better idea of how good this team is — but even
then, it’s still too early. Last season, by the end of October, we thought we were well on our way, and then November hit, and everything was a long cruel nightmare.
But: By the end of November, we’ll have 19 games of data to go off of, and we’ll be just past the three-month mark that Jose Mourinho spoke about in today’s presser.
Having said that, we can discuss some of the things we’ve seen so far with regards to rotation: Mourinho has leaned very heavily on a few players, and one of those names is surprising: Thibaut Courtois, Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham, Fede Valverde, Vinicius Jr, and….. Denzel Dumfries.
Interesting. Even Marc Cucurella has been rotating with Alvaro Carreras. The media hasn’t asked Mourinho about Trent Alexander-Arnold much, if at all, and it’s clear that Mourinho really values Dumfries’s defensive effort over Trent’s progressive passing ability, so far. Dumfries even started with Yan Diomande on the right wing vs Rayo Vallecano, and I always thought Trent’s omission had more to do with Mourinho not wanting to pair Trent with Arda Güler on the right wing — but he stuck with Dumfries even with a pure winger who defends like a maniac.
Will this be a permanent theme? Those of you who’ve followed my work this season know that I like Dumfries’s effort and runs more than his actual execution. There are plenty of times where Dumfries can’t pull off the pass down the wing to break the defensive line the way Trent can. Dumfries can also do things that Trent can’t. I’d like to see Trent more, in part because he is one of those players who desperately needs a string of games to get rhythm and I think he raises the team’s offensive ceiling greatly. But, to be fair, this team hasn’t lacked any offensive creation, and, if anything, it does need more defensive security.
- Yan Diomande will slowly win over the Bernabeu, and I am willing to be patient with this entire process. I liked his first half vs Rayo. He is a no-nonsense player who is vertical and takes minimal touches to get past his man and get the ball up the field. There is no questioning his defensive effort, at all — he tracks and presses aggressively and runs himself into the ground. He turned Pedrosa inside-out on one occasion, and on another, blitzed past two defenders like they didn’t exist. Of course, his final end product hasn’t been there, yet. He is such a different look to Arda Güler from a profile standpoint, but does have his place here, and the Bernabeu applauded several of his efforts.
- What happened at half-time? Yes, Fede Valverde (excellent in the first half) left for Eduardo Camavinga — but I’m not sure it’s as simple as that one simple swap. In fact, I think it has a lot to do with a bizarre mentality shift (chalked up, possibly, to complacency with a comfortable half-time lead) coupled with fatigue. Mourinho said after the game that “I knew the team didn’t have the physical or mental intensity to keep playing the second half like the first. We were motivated to start strong and finish the game off early, we did that.”
This reasoning makes sense in theory, but sometimes the execution of it looks clunky. What happened against Rayo is what should’ve happened against Real Betis and what will be the plan in every game: Be aggressive in the first half, score two or three goals, and then conserve energy in a deeper block in the second half and kill the game off in transition. But I do think you need to rotate and sub more if you already know players are gassed in the second half. Mourinho didn’t use all five of his subs despite having a deep bench, and one of the hardest working player this season, Vinicius Jr, didn’t come off until the 89th minute.
- Arda Güler masterclass, edition 900. He’s too good. Real Madrid looked dead in the second half. Güler arrived from the sky with a lightning bolt and struck thunder into his teammates. What a breath of fresh air. His touches: sublime. His final ball: devastating. How do you play 18 minutes and lead every single player in key passes? Baller.
- We’re seeing the fruits of competition: Antonio Rüdiger slotted in for Dean Huijsen and had 12 clearances. Alvaro Carreras started over Marc Cucurella and won a penalty before scoring a goal. Seeing two players who struggled last season play well in smaller roles is another reason why I wish we could see more minutes for players like Trent and Carlos Espi.
