What is Real Madrid’s Strongest Team?

Last Wednesday’s incredible 7-3 win over Seville saw Real Madrid at its attacking best. When the season began and Real Madrid had signed Gareth Bale, this is exactly what the club had in mind. Madridistas have been waiting for this. Now they have finally got a taste of just how devastatingly dangerous the attacking can be and suddenly after the gloom of last weekend’s defeat to Barcelona, things just got a lot more optimistic for the club.

The pure talent up front was too hot for Sevilla to handle, and the combination of Ronaldo and Bale proved absolutely unstoppable. Karim Benzema also grabbed a brace as he is slowly trying to find his groove after a difficult opening few months where he was constantly criticised for his profligacy in front of the goal.

Until the win over Sevilla, Gareth Bale had been very disappointing in the Los Blancos shirt. The Welshman looked lost and very uncomfortable at times. But all that changed on Wednesday. The world’s most expensive player made his first start at home and scored two, assisted two and played the full 90 minutes. His play on the right wing was exhilarating, and he showed just what he is capable of.  He was back to his best. Madridistas will be hoping that this is a sign of what will come in the near future. Angel di Maria is an extremely good player but he is not a prolific goal-scorer and we must admit that Gareth Bale is superior to him in more than one ways.

Gareth Bale may have returned to form but everyone knows that no matter how good other players play the star man for Real Madrid will always be Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 22nd hat-trick for Real Madrid on Wednesday and 18th in the La Liga. The 28-year-old has taken his goalscoring exploits to a new platform since signing for Los Blancos from Manchester United in 2009. Indeed, in just over four years he has scored a jaw-dropping 219 times in just 213 matches; to give his goal rush some context, it took club-record marksman Raul 16 years to tally his 323.

In the Clasico defeat against Barcelona, Real played without a Number 10 and that blunted their attack to some extent. So Isco’s role is very much important in order to make their attack more dangerous. On a satisfying night for the hosts, Xabi Alonso made his first appearance of the season after 5 months lay-off due to his injury. Xabi Alonso is a type of player whose qualities are missed only when he is not around and Real Madrid has struggled at times due to his absence. Asier Illarramendi is a very good player but we need to admit that he has a long way to go before he reaches the level of Xabi Alonso. Now that he is back Real Madrid should again start to dominate the midfield play with Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira in the central midfield.

Despite the amazing match put in by Real Madrid, the defence was far from acceptable. In truth, most of the defensive blunders came as a result of the poor display by Alvaro Arbeloa. The right-back has been the weak point in the chain for Real Madrid for a while now, and showed it again in the match against Sevilla. Arbeloa was beaten time and again and he was horribly out of position on one of Sevilla’s goals. Even Daniel Carvajal has not been able to replicate his form at Bayer Leverkusen last season where he was one of the best right backs in Bundesliga. Left back Marcelo is probably one of the best attacking left backs in the world but even he is sometimes caught out of position.

With some minor adjustments, Real Madrid can become a better defensive unit and with the attacking wealth they possess, they are capable of becoming the best team in Europe and the La Decima may not be far out of reach.

So here is how the strongest Real Madrid team should look like:
               
          Casillas/Lopez
Carvajal   Ramos     Pepe/Varane   Marcelo
    Xabi Alonso     Sami Khedira
Bale           Isco           Ronaldo
            Benzema