Real Madrid|Let’s see what the month of October beholds for us

Source

A change of month that has come with a change of morale after dropping points in the Champions League yet again. It’s embarrassing to have conceded 2 goals in the first half against Club Brugge at home, and it’s embarrassing to only have 1 point in 2 games in the Champions League group stage, but at least we made a comeback to run away with that point. One more goal and we would’ve taken 3 points and the story would be completely different, with the satisfaction of a remontada and a win in the end erasing the dismay at the two first-half goals conceded. We’re left though with a hard-fought but negative result which feels sour.

The great defending of September which provided us with 3 clean sheets in a row has now been cut open twice and fallen apart at the dawn of October. Kind of reminds me of what happened with Solari, January and February were great months in which the defence was performing well in the biggest of matches (like the 3-1 win over Atletico, and the 1-1 draw with Barca in the Copa semifinal first leg, and the 2-1 win over Ajax in the UCL round of 16 first leg). The midfield saw an improved Modric who took up until December to wake up after the World Cup but was finally playing well again. The attack was balling with the introduction of Vinicius as a starter lighting the team up and Benzema scoring goals left and right. We looked like we could’ve actually lifted a trophy in May. Then March rolled around and everything collapsed. We got beaten in that second leg of the Copa semis by Barca, who then beat our demoralized players again a few days later, and then a few days later that demoralization carried over to our second leg game against Ajax where we were demolished and our season was over.

When you look at how today’s switchover from September to October compares to that switchover from February to March, at least it doesn’t look THAT bad. First of all, it’s just October, we’re not going to be eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League unless we fail to start winning. In last season’s group stage, we were beaten 3-0 by CSKA Moscow two times but still topped the group while CSKA was relegated to the Europa. And secondly, the fact that we came back in the second half and scored twice to prevent a lass was quite positive. Ever since last season there have been countless games where we’ve conceded in the first half and been too demoralized to go score, and we’d just lose the game. We really couldn’t afford another concede-and-give-up. It was especially Zidane who couldn’t afford it, and he must’ve had a great team talk at half time to provoke the comeback. This is ultimately how we need to respond when we go down, because you’re always gonna go down in football, it’s how you respond that defines you.