The quarry, to the rescue

With seven casualties, some of them key (Ramos and Casemiro are vaulted arches in this white team), the white quarry was once again the patch that the white team needed to get a point from their second visit to the La Cerámica stadium. Little baggage, but given the situation with which the Madridistas arrived, it can be considered something positive.

Within this situation and as has been customary in the history of the Whites, the quarry was one of the mainstays. Up to five players used Zidane who come from the lower categories. And all of them performed remarkably: Carvajal he played 63 games for Castilla between 2010 and 2012 (3 goals and 6 assists); Nacho added 111 in the subsidiary; Luke Vazquez 92 (15 goals, 14 assists), plus 14 in Madrid C de Tercera; Mariano 33 games for Castilla (27 goals) and 26 for Madrid C (15); Y Odegaard 62 games with the white team (5 goals and 9 assists).

Practically a new spine to settle in on a difficult exit (Villarreal had 10 consecutive victories among all competitions before), and with four of them with hardly any competition rhythm: Carvajal and Nacho came out of injury; Odegaard came from making a Madrid-Oslo-Madrid trip without playing a single minute by political decision (the Norwegian Government banned the games for fear of an outbreak of Coronavirus), while Mariano had barely participated in so far this season: only 14 minutes in the defeat against Valencia on November 8. Only Lucas Vázquez, who has played (and fulfilled more than enough) as a right back since the injuries of Carvajal, Odriozola and Nacho, has had continuity in this beginning of the campaign precisely because of the losses of his teammates.

Carvajal, who was returning to the team after injuring his internal lateral ligament in training in Valdebebas (it happened on October 2), fulfilled in a wonderful way: The lack of competition rhythm was noticed, something logical, but it was the author of the center that allowed Mariano to open the scoreboard after two minutes of play. The Madrilenian won more than half of his duels (55.6%: Mendy, on the left back won 36.4%), played the 90 minutes (especially with a view to Wednesday's match at San Siro, and gave 16 passes of 42 in the opposite field.

Nacho, the other player who came from an injury (in his case it was a muscular type in the right anterior rectus, produced on the day of the Classic) He was superb acting in the axis of the rear along with Varane. The Madrilenian was spectacular stopping the local attacks, as well as in an action at the end of the match against the Japanese Kubo. He hit 44 of the 47 passes he tried and saw a yellow for knocking down an opponent.

Odegaard, for his part, started again in the league for the third time this season, after having done it in San Sebastián and in Seville against Betis. And the Norwegian was the best of the game. Together with Kroos and Modric he got the ball out with speed and success, pushing the yellow midfielder line. Madrid began to deflate with its departure in the 65th minute, with 25 minutes to go. The Norwegian knew how to pause the white game in the Villarreal field, hide the ball and look for jumping passes. His performance against Villarreal recalled the player who dazzled last year in the ranks of Real Sociedad, and showed Zidane another variant to use throughout this campaign. Together with Casemiro, and with the Nordic with freedom of movement, Madrid can dominate in large sections of the games.

Lucas Vazquez, for its part, was one of the novelties of Zidane. With the return of the injured, everything pointed to the Galician starting the match on the bench, but Zizou decided to reward him for his dull and dark work during the injuries of Carvajal, Nacho and Odriozola. He started again to help the former on his return and to strike down the right wing Emery's team (he was the second Madrid player with the most fouls suffered, four, only behind Hazard, who suffered five). His ruptures from the band to the inside carried danger, but his must include the 21 losses he had.

Mariano barely took 104 seconds to open the scoring with a shot from the old-fashioned striker: a head chopped, hard, fiercely. The scorer of the last goal seen at the Bernabéu so far (against Barcelona on March 1), Jovic has won the place, that between bad luck and a crooked destiny, he falls to the position of third forward in the squad. But if you continue that way, you will have more minutes. The Spanish-Dominican forward has accidentally opened a debate among the white fans: “Why hasn't Zidane counted on him more?” This campaign started in a bad way: it was the first positive of COVID-19 of the staff, which was followed by tonsillitis that cost him to lose several kilos of muscles, but he is gaining the pulse. If Benzema does not recover, he has all the ballots to be Madrid's forward at San Siro next Wednesday …

But again, in Villarreal, the white quarry once again gave an example of their perseverance, their effort, self-love and affection for the team in which they have formed. The white quarry always complies …