Real Madrid drew 1-1 at Villarreal on Saturday afternoon, managing to take a point to the Spanish capital from a trip with many absences and against a tough rival. Before thoughts turn to Inter, here’s a look at some of the main talking points from this weekend’s league outing.
Three responses
1. Would Carvajal, Varane, Nacho and Hazard be 100 percent?
Zinedine Zidane does not like to use a player when he is not 100 percent. He has said that on several occasions and his actions have supported those words over and over again. But, in this game his hand was forced with some of his selection decisions as he had seven key absences for this trip. So, Dani Carvajal, Raphaël Varane and Nacho returned from their recent injuries perhaps a little earlier than Zidane and Hazard would have liked, although he has recovered from COVID-19, he still entered the game with that persistent apprehension in his right ankle . . The first trio played well and looked fit, doing a good job on defense for most of the game until the energy from Villarreal’s substitutes proved too much. Hazard, meanwhile, was calm and largely uninvolved. In the first half, there was beautiful low-angle camera work from the Belgian gracefully receiving the ball with the sun on him, but that’s all I remember of him in this game. It was the kind of silent performance his critics will pounce on.
2. Would it be a double pivot to replace Casemiro?
There were so many absences, but most areas of Zidane’s lineup were still pretty easy to work out. We knew that Mariano would probably start at the top, flanked by two ends. We knew there would be four behind. It was in the midfield where the biggest questions appeared. How would Real Madrid face the absences of Casemiro and Fede Valverde? Would there be a double pivot to replace the Brazilian, since one man cannot do what Case does? Well, the answer was … something like that. Toni Kroos and Luka Modrić played side by side, with the German on the left and the Croat on the right, while Martin Ødegaard was allowed to move on. But Modrić also came a long way, sometimes playing some 10 meters ahead of Kroos. There is simply no equal replacement for Casemiro when he is missing.
3. How much would we see of Takefusa Kubo?
Throughout the season, the guys on the Loan Tracker podcast have been following Villarreal games to see Takefusa Kubo. However, they have not always seen much of the young Japanese, who is on loan at the Estadio de la Cerámica this season from Real Madrid. Unai Emery has been cautious of the 19-year-old, who has stiff competition in the form of Samu Chukwueze and Moi Gomez. So it took until 89th minute of this for Kubo to enter and he was very good in those final minutes, even scoring a winning goal. He has only played 36% of the minutes available so far this season, 427 of 1,170. But, his minutes will increase as the season progresses and we should note that he only returned from Japan’s international service on Thursday of this week.
Three questions
1. When will Mariano start?
For the first time since May 5, 2019, Mariano was a starter at Real Madrid. He only did it because Zidane had no other choice, with Karim Benzema injured and Luka Jović with COVID-19. But, Mariano did what Mariano does. He scored. It took Mariano 105 seconds to open the scoring in this one, which means that the forward averages one goal for Real Madrid every 99 minutes, basically one goal per game. He does what Jović doesn’t, so when will Mariano start again? Hopefully not another 18 months …
2. Did the Villarreal players do well to get angry at the linesman’s flag on the first goal?
After two weeks without club football, Real Madrid returned with an immediate controversy. Mariano’s goal sparked outrage from the Villarreal players as the linesman raised the offside flag in preparation and half of Villarreal’s defense came to a halt. What happened was that Dani Carvajal tried to play the ball off Lucas Vázquez’s offside, but Alfonso Pedraza blocked the pass. When the ball returned to Carvajal, the assistant raised the flag because a new phase of the game was beginning and he had seen an offside in the previous play. But head referee Alejandro Hernández Hernández did not blow the whistle. The game continued and Carvajal crossed for Mariano to score. Whether it was an offside or not is subjective in this case; It depends on whether or not you can judge that Lucas was sufficiently involved or not. For this reason, personally, I think Hernández Hernández should have gone to look at the VAR monitor, which he did not do. So that’s a fair complaint from the Villarreal players. His other problem was with the flag flying and distracting the defense, but one of the first things they teach you in any sport is blowing the whistle. It is bad luck for Villarreal because the flag raising usually causes the whistle, but this time there has not been. The fact that they turn off is in them.
3. Will Ferland Mendy ever lose a LaLiga game?
With Carvajal, Nacho and Varane coming into this match after recent injuries, Ferland Mendy was arguably the freshest player on the baseline. He had not been absent in international service and, to everyone’s surprise, had not played a minute in the defeat of Valencia before the break. So, I was ready to go and it was brilliant. The French left-back is so good at everything he does and acted as the leader in this difficult outing. A point away at Villarreal is not to sniff. In times of coronavirus, you shouldn’t be smelling anything. And this result maintains Mendy’s impressive record of never having lost a domestic match that began since arriving at the Bernabéu. Real Madrid have suffered six defeats in LaLiga or the Copa del Rey since Mendy’s arrival last summer and he has only been on the pitch for those six defeats for 31 minutes, having entered as a substitute when the Whites were already losing 2-0 Real Betis last season. He did not participate in the defeats against Real Mallorca, Real Sociedad, Levante, Cádiz or Valencia. Will you ever lose?
