Real Madrid put Real Sociedad away 4-1 in their first match at the Bernabeu this season. A hat-trick from Kylian Mbappe, along with a goal from Vinicius Junior, made sure that Jose Mourinho’s return to the stadium was not spoiled.
Dean Huijsen and the art of completing boring passes
This is not meant to be a diss.
One of Dean Huijsen’s biggest criticisms from last season was his tendency to always find a spectacular pass. He was always diabolically vertical with his passes, regardless of whether they made any sense. He looked to always be positive with his actions
— sometimes too positive, and that hurt Real Madrid on many occasions.
Things would be going well, and the team would be in a position where they needed to keep the ball. Instead of playing the easy pass, Huijsen would always try to find an attacker who was never expecting a pass in the first place.
Against Real Sociedad, and also against Espanyol, things looked more ‘boring’ and standard and less chaotic with Huijsen. The Spanish International had a 96% pass completion rate on 72 attempts, as he played a lot of sideways passes to Bernardo Silva, Marc Cucurella and Ibrahima Konate.
He progressed the ball when it felt right and necessary, but also understood the importance of keeping the ball and having control of the game. There were a couple of unnecessary through balls here and there, but things generally looked good, and this is a version of Huijsen that Real Madrid can definitely use in games where they would struggle to keep possession. A consistent, ball-playing centre-back like Huijsen lifts this team’s ceiling.
Off-ball movements and one-touch passes
Real Madrid have struggled to get creative in games where they face a low block at many points over the last few years, and not a lot of it has to do with the quality on the pitch. Even when it is Real Madrid’s best XI playing at the Bernabeu, the low block has given them loads of problems.
Against Real Sociedad, whenever the away side shifted to a low block to defend — which did not happen all the time — Los Blancos were able to get creative. The second half saw a lot of pressure from the home side, which forced La Real to sit back and absorb pressure. Even at some points during the first half, it seemed like Real Madrid would struggle to have many clear sights on goal, but their movement was much better than before. There were loads of entries into the box from the attackers, and at points, the midfielders as well. They occupied so many positions in the box that there were many players to lay the ball off to. That led to some brilliant one-touch moves and pass-and-go’s — one of which resulted in a goal for Mbappe.
Even if you disregard the goal, there were some impressive passes and movements in and around the box which, coupled with patience and ball retention, made it relatively easy for the team to break down a very sturdy Real Sociedad.
Ibrahima Konate, floor raiser
This is a version of Konate that Real Madrid fans can get behind. In his two games, he has looked absolutely rock-solid, and it seems like he is edging closer to his best version in a Real Madrid shirt.
He has only played two official games for Real Madrid, but he has already looked better than the version that showed up for Liverpool last season. Obviously, there were personal problems he had to deal with, which had an impact on his football, but it seems like he is slowly dealing with it, while also recovering a version of himself that was a joy to watch in his first few years at Liverpool.
Against Real Sociedad, Konate completed 52 of his 54 passes, had two tackles, three blocks, three clearances and two recoveries. He knew when to step up and put pressure on Real Sociedad’s attackers, and also was able to manage the right side quite comfortably whenever Denzel Dumfries went on one of his darting runs into the attacking third.
If Konate is able to keep himself fit and firing this way, many of Real Madrid’s defensive issues will slowly go away.
