This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
The 2019 summer transfer window is now officially closed and the clubs will have to work with what they’ve got until January. For Real Madrid, however, that just might not be enough as they’re still left with a lot of unanswered questions. But there’s an unlikely hero among them who could possibly lead them to glory: Gareth Bale.
And just weeks ago, that statement would have seemed rather absurd and unlikely but now, three games into the new 2019/20 La Liga season and especially considering the transfer market is closed, it just might be true.
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Los Blancos’ latest bout saw them lock horns with Villarreal in a rather tough match away from home. After trailing 1-0 and 2-1 throughout the game, only some Bale magic salvaged a point for Zinedine Zidane’s troops. Not really an ideal result by any means but it still beats defeat.
And despite the Welshman getting sent off in the dying minutes of the game, he was very much their top performer on the day. Of course, those two goals stand out the most but Bale did much more than just that; he had an overall brilliant performance and truly led the team on his own.
The 30-year-old former-outcast registered three shots during the game, two of which ended up being on target, and apart from slotting two goals into the net of the opposition, he also tallied three key passes and registered a decent passing accuracy of 82.4%.
This suggests that there’s actually much more to Bale than just speed and goals as he proved against Villarreal that he can also create for his teammates.
This will come as a big sign of relief for Real Madrid who have been struggling with converting chances and scoring goals for a while now.
Just weeks ago, Bale was one step away from being shipped off to China and now, as fate would have it, he’s in a position to become their attacking leader, whether Zidane likes it or not.
It remains to be seen, however, whether he’ll warrant such a huge role and, of course, the big question remains: can he stay healthy and injury-free to fulfil it accordingly? Either way, this season just might be Bale’s most important one to date.
Let’s see how he does.
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