da fezbet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Monthly Review series, which analyses what managers can learn from the previous month and what the coming month could have in store.
da dobrowin： The start of the new 2019/20 La Liga campaign really hasn’t been the best for Real Madrid and Zinedine Zidane.
But as we moved forward and Los Blancos finally found their groove, their fortunes suddenly started changing. And now, as we are slowly but surely stepping into October, Zidane can look back and see some major positives.
End of defensive woes
This is quite a big one.
Even before the season had started, Real Madrid already looked doomed. They had their worst pre-season in 39 years, conceding a total of 16 goals in just five games before the new La Liga campaign.
And it didn’t stop there. Zidane and co. couldn’t keep a clean sheet for the next five games running across all competitions, drawing two and losing 3-0 to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League in the process.
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By their standards, that was not nearly good enough. But as we were coming to the end of September, the Galacticos finally started showing their true colours.
In the last three La Liga clashes they faced, they kept three clean sheets, propelling themselves to the very top of the table and leaving both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona behind them.
Of course, there’s still a long way to go but it seems that Real are slowly improving their defensive record.
Discovering the youth
The other thing that should make Zidane very happy is actually the depth of his bench.
Both Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes have been expensive purchases in Real Madrid’s recent ventures in the transfer windows but neither had seemed to excel.
But if some of the latest clashes are any indication, Zidane is finally finding spots for them in the squad.
Interestingly enough, both Brazilian talents were on the scoresheet when Real Madrid welcomed Osasuna at the Santiago Bernabeu on matchday six. Neither of them have been used that much, considering Vinicius has only 279 minutes so far in La Liga this season and Rodrygo is on just 19.
But simply knowing he has valuable assets on the bench should make Zidane a very happy man.