Gareth Bale’s central role against Man United proves Welshman has a future at Real Madrid

Andy West 01:33 09/08/2017
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Has Gareth Bale found him-self a new role at Real Madrid? The Welshman headed into Tuesday night’s UEFA Super Cup with his future in doubt after a poor and injury-plagued end to last season, but he came away from

    the contest with another medal and fresh hope that his Bernabeu career is not yet over.

    Aside from his recurrent physical problems, before Tuesday night the biggest argument against Bale staying in Spain rather than returning to England was that it was difficult to see where he could fit into Zinedine Zidane’s team.

    After all, Los Blancos are preparing for the campaign on the back of a superb couple of months, which concluded with them winning their first La Liga and European double for more than 10 years. Not only was Bale absent during that golden run, but Zidane also developed a new shape which omitted wingers in favour of a narrow midfield diamond with the team’s width coming from the full-backs.

    This seemed to spell big trouble for Bale, who has spent his entire Madrid career to date playing as a left or right winger in a 4-3-3 formation. If that approach has been discarded, where does Bale fit in?

    Against Manchester United in Skopje, however, we were given a potential answer: centre forward.

    With Cristiano Ronaldo only just back in training and last season’s back-ups Alvaro Morata and Mariano Diaz both departed, Real are lacking depth in the striker role and Zidane opted to give Bale an opportunity in that position. He took it with both hands.

    Although Bale didn’t quite manage to get himself on the scoresheet, he did more than enough during his 73 minutes on the field to suggest that he could, quite feasibly, become the team’s third centre forward, competing with Karim Benzema and Ronaldo.

    In his new central role, Bale was heavily involved from the very start, winning a corner after 90 seconds with a powerful burst into the box and then firing a stabbed shot over the top after shaking off the attentions of Nemanja Matic.

    The Welshman continued to more than play his part as Madrid proceeded to dominate the game, often looking to play off the shoulder of United’s centre backs but also pulling wide onto the flanks and troubling the opposition wing-backs with his direct running.

    Gareth Bale (R)

    Gareth Bale (R)

    Bale then had a goal disallowed for a close call offside after linking up well with Benzema, and early in the second half he played a big part in the goal which ultimately secured victory, combining neatly with Isco to provide a precise one-two pass which his team-mate stylishly slotted home.

    Shortly after that, he was only denied a goal by a matter of inches after thrashing a powerful right-footed drive past David de Gea and against the crossbar. And although Bale’s influence waned as United battled to get back into the game, he had delivered a strong reminder of his talents.

    Questions, however, remain. Firstly, it’s likely that Bale only started because Ronaldo was not match-fit following his extended summer break. Secondly, the prospect of Kylian Mbappe arriving at the Bernabeu from Monaco this summer remains a very real one, which would provide another forward to further threaten Bale’s prospects of getting into the team.

    But it seems certain that Bale has no intention of quitting Madrid just yet, and he’s unlikely to be pushed out. And if he’s prepared to become a squad player rather than an automatic starter, he might just have found himself a new niche.

    Recommended