Five wins in five games, and a solitary leadership position in La Liga. Nothing too surprising or out of the ordinary for Real Madrid, some will say, since the Merengues are precisely expected in these registers every year. But when we know how lively the Madrid summer was, not many expected a fanfare debut. Just a few weeks ago, the trend was even rather pessimistic on the Madrid side.
Certainly, a player of the caliber of Jude Bellingham had arrived at the start of the summer, but the Madrilenians had lost Karim Benzema. On paper, the Merengues displayed – and still display – a fairly limited workforce in the offensive sector, with Joselu as the only real number 9, and very few alternatives to Rodrygo and Vinicius Junior. An offensive sector far from being at the level of such a club, for many Madrid observers. Then, there was this serious injury to Thibaut Courtois before the start of the championship, and that of Éder Militão during the first meeting. Then, there was also this new system put in place by Carlo Ancelotti, with a 4-4-2 diamond with a Rodrygo-Vinicius duo as offensive references, which did not seem to convince many people…
It’s convincing
A few weeks later, however, the results are practically perfect. The Madrilenians won their first five La Liga duels, even though they had complicated matches, like this trip to Bilbao on the first day, or this duel against Real Sociedad on Sunday evening. Everything is not perfect of course – there are still some gaps in defense – but Carlo Ancelotti’s team is at the expected level. Carried by a very fit Jude Bellingham, although a little below on Sunday, the Madrilenians have adapted very well to this new system and to the absence of a Benzema who has been in the team for more than 10 years.
It will obviously be necessary to confirm during the big deadlines, in Europe in particular, but for the moment, we are off to a good start. In addition to Bellingham, the Italian coach can count on other players in form, such as Eduardo Camavinga or Fede Valverde. Joselu is currently scoring points, and has scored two decisive goals in his team’s last two outings. Real Madrid are running at full speed and Barça have been warned: it will be very difficult to defend their championship title this season!
