Trophy,Mbappe with good debut,Vinicius,Fede,Jude looking good.Rodrygo and Tcouameni not so much . Crazy squad lets see what they can do
Good win team, good win Carlo, 2 goals, clean sheet, good performance for the first competitive game of the season, Jude with an outstanding game, happy with that
Much better second half, lead by Jude and Vini. Needed warmup before the start of the league. Happy for Mbappe getting his goal. Would’ve liked earlier subs, but it’s Carlo.
Jude MOTM for me Vini close second Fede 3rd. Mili also played well. Second half the team kicked it up a notch, I bet Carlo gave them the talk.
Jude Bellingham vs Atalanta:1 assist.90% pass accuracy.3 key passes.2 big chances created.5/6 dribbles completed.12 duels won.3 fouls won.2 tackles.2 interceptions. pic.twitter.com/BsJVTR0DVI— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) August 14, 2024
See how much better he looks playing with competent players around him and not duds like Foden and Rice
I think we dominated the match overall. We might not have had clear cut chances in the first half, but we were in full control other than that one great save from Tibo.
I think Mbappe is still only around 60-70%......still has to sharpen up physically. Real Madrid intensity is levels above what he's used to. But the combination play with him Vini + Jude is going to be ridiculous in a couple of months.
Jude was brilliant, Vini also. No need to draw conclusion, just first game, but yeah, to replace Kroos will be tough. However, first trophy, let's do it more!
Nothing to do with Real Madrid "level" (whatever that means). He's been off a lot of last year and especially during the Euro. Rumor is that he partied a storm last season and completely gave up on his diet + training regimen since he was being ostracized. Knew he was leaving Paris so enjoyed his life. Big q is if he turns it around physically at Real Madrid. He's still nowhere near the level he was physically until the summer of 2023. Very far off. You can see that he's lost a step.
In the second half, it seemed like Carlo let Fede play more through the middle/forward and had Dani move up later in the possession to make runs to shift play rather than having him move up early and serve as an outlet. It's kind of hard to tell as we really started to control the game, but it seemed to put more players in the middle of the field and that seemed to help us gain some control there.
Meh first half, better second half but need better of course. First game and all that. Glorified friendly anyway. Jude, Vini, Fede were very good. Especially in the second half. Mbappe was a big meh along with Rodrygo. Not sure about that midfield. Really missing Kroos.