Kroos and Modric are great, but without a goalscorer it is impossible

Published on: 02 March 2021

Real Madrid's first half had been good. Quite good, in fact. No goals and no clear threat, of course, but they dominated thanks to the rhythm of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, who imposed their style of play without any problems against Real Sociedad. They even pushed forward quite often to assist an attack that was supported by Isco, who was also getting a lot of touches of the ball. That is why the change of system ordered by Zinedine Zidane after the break, which threw his team off balance and gave wings to their opponents, is even less understandable. Moving Casemiro back into a three-man defence when he is the biggest attacking threat with his headers in Karim Benzema's absence and losing control of the midfield all came in one change.

After Real Sociedad took a 1-0 lead through Portu in the 55th minute, what followed was what was expected: 40 minutes of Los Blancos' fowards fighting against their lack of a clinical nature, their limitations and their lack of resources. Excluding Benzema, they have 12 goals split across seven forwards. The fact that Real Madrid are still alive in LaLiga Santander and in Europe is a miracle. Zidane took off Mariano Diaz, Marco Asensio and Isco in one fell swoop and the truth is that Rodrygo Goes and Fede Valverde did provide a bit more clarity. It was curious to see how after Mariano went off his team started to put balls into the box like there was no tomorrow, which they didn't do while he was on the pitch. In the end Vinicius Junior converted a cross that wasn't properly cleared to equalise and celebrate his 100th match in a Real Madrid shirt, although the disappointment was palpable because the team deserved more. Kroos, Modric and Casemiro are very good, but it wouldn't hurt if every now and then an attacking player showed that they have what it takes to play for Real Madrid.

Source: m.allfootballapp.com

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