Gareth Bale Has Now Become the Player Real Madrid Always Wanted Him to Be

The sample size was admittedly small, but you didn’t need a doctorate in mathematics to recognise this one was significant.

It was just before 4 p.m. local time when Real Madrid and Real Sociedad’s players emerged from the tunnel at Anoeta, the sun shining but dark clouds hovering, the sense of looming danger encapsulated. As the players walked out, you were already aware of the lineups, but still when you saw them, it struck you: This looked lightweight.

For Real Madrid, both Marcelo and Dani Carvajal were missing from the full-back posts. There was no Pepe in central defence. No Toni Kroos in midfield. And, most crucially, no Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema up front.

Ever since the arrivals of Ronaldo and Benzema at the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer of 2009, 263 of Madrid’s 267 league games had featured at least one of the pair. In the four that hadn’t: zero wins.

And this was the fifth.

For 79 tense and hard-fought minutes on Saturday, it looked as though that sample size would grow to five, but then Gareth Bale intervened.

Again.

With a soaring header.

Again.

To throw on the cape.

Again.

To prolong Madrid’s fight.

Again.

“Real Madrid didn’t win La Liga matches without Cristiano and Benzema,” wrote AS.com’s Marco Ruiz, “…until Bale.”

There’s now something very compelling about the mentality Bale has seemingly tapped into, the sense of growth striking.

On Saturday, when the Welshman leaped to meet Lucas Vazquez’s cross from the right, he was only seven days removed from scoring the crucial winner against Rayo Vallecano—almost seven days to the minute. 

Indeed, in Vallecas, after a performance of utter dominance that had hauled his team back from the brink with Ronaldo absent and Benzema sitting in pain on the bench, Bale had scored …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com