Since Cristiano Ronaldo left Real Madrid, Los Blancos have started to rebuild their squad with young talented players. The tactical intelligence and man management Zinedine Zidane has shown in his second tenure has impressed.

Youth 

 

These 5 young players are going to make up the future spine of an exciting Real Madrid team. 

 

• Fede Valverde, my personal favorite on this list is a dynamic midfielder who can attack as well as defend. He has revived our aging and out of form midfield and he’s been our best midfielder since. It’s rare not to see him in the starting lineup. The Uruguayan is a favorite of Zidane.

 

• Ferland Mendy, a pacey work horse of a Left back who runs up and down the pitch tirelessly. What he lacks in flair and dribbling he makes up with footballing and positional intelligence. He’s great defensively and offensively and is destined to be a deserved heir, to the great Marcelo. 

 

• Éder Militão, he’s a good center back for his age, tall, strong also decently fast. Problem is he doesn’t seem to work as a partner for Varane. With Ramos on the other hand you wouldn’t even notice Varane is missing so that’s positive for the young Brazilian.

 

• Martin Ødegaard, I’ve had people tell me that Madrid have ruined this player’s career sending him on loan after loan. Well he’s back and he’s still only 21 and was the best attacking Midfielder in the league last season. Zidane cut his latest loan spell short thankfully to start integrating him into the first team. He played well but suffered an injury which will see him out till Mid November. 

 

• Vinicius Jr., a pacey left winger who is a talented dribbler and has shown promise but has the finishing of CR7’s Grandmother. This season he has started well scoring 3 in 7 games so improvement is there to be seen. I am sure he will eventually become a 20 goal a season player but for now he must continue to learn and gain confidence.

 

The Garden Of Eden 

 

Eden Hazard had a terrible first season due to injuries and lack of fitness. However at the time of writing has looked fit and match sharp. Against Borussia Mönchengladbach he came on as a sub and even though he wasn’t directly involved in the two goals he seemed to be a positive influence on the game. I think Zidane would agree as the following game unsurprisingly, was put in the staring XI against Huesca. He rewarded the gaffer’s faith with an absolute Golazo for his first goal of the season. In said game he played 60 minutes before being subbed off for Vinicius (Inter midweek in mind). In this game which ended 4-1 in Los Blancos’ favor the Belgian won the Budweiser king of the match despite his teammate Benzema scoring a brace and playing the full game. I don’t want to jinx it but……Eden Hazard is back (maybe).

 

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Real Madrid are far from perfect and will not challenge let alone win another champions League before addressing the following :

 

The Defense

Last season the merengues conceded the least amount of goals in the top 5 Leagues (just 25).To put that into context that’s 2 less than Atletico, 7 less than Bayern (who play 34 games not 38 in a league season) and 8 less than Liverpool. However when Sergio Ramos does not play, the backline is unorganized. Varane as good as he is, needs a leader as he does not make good decisions quickly. Also, Marcelo does not have the legs to run up and down the pitch anymore. This weakness is often targeted by opposition teams to great success as he is defensively suspect. Zidane, start him up top he’ll be class I swear, attacking wise he’s still got it.

 

Striker

Benzema is class, but he alone is not enough to fill Ronaldo’s boots and could start to decline at any moment at his age. Real signed Luka Jovic from Frankfurt and this is a signing I hope does work out in the long run. So far his agility, composure and confidence on the ball has not been up to scratch. Zidane likes a mobile no 9 who will drift wide when needed and make timely runs in behind the defense. Jovic is not that kind of striker and probably never will be.

 

Squad Depth

We need 3 first team signings to have what would be the ideal squad with 2 players in every position. To challenge for multiple trophies you need a strong 25 man squad, players need competition and squad rotation. Match sharpness and keeping squads fit wins titles. The 3 signings we need are, firstly a Defensive Midfielder to challenge Casemiro to get in the starting lineup. Secondly a Centre back to challenge or play alongside Varane or Militão, since they don’t work as a center back pairing. Lastly a clinical attacker, someone who could score 30/40 goals a season.   

How they’ve started the season

Overall they find themselves top of La Liga on 16 points at the time of writing. They’ve won 5, drawn 1 and lost 1 while scoring 13 and conceding 5 in 7 games. In the champions League however they need a kick up the proverbial behind. 2 games and only 1 point from 6 having lost 1 and drawn 1 against sub par opposition. Next 2 games are crucial, Inter home and away, win those games and topping the group becomes a possibility. Eden Hazard this is your time to shine ! (Please)

Note : Whatever issue there was between Benzema and Vinicius according to Zidane has been solved. I believe that to be true as it showed on the pitch as the two played well together.

 

——————–

Article written by general football addict Reuben Scerri.

Agree? Disagree? Have something to add? Your comments are always welcomed and appreciated. So get to it and leave your your thoughts below….

and finally, remember, OzUncut is now for the fans, by the fans. So if you are a fan, and have an opinion about something, write it down, send it to us and we will throw it on the site. You don’t need to be CHARLES DICKENS, just a passionate fan with an opinion.