Everyone deserves a second chance. Okay, apart from sick-minded pedophiles or other cretins, MOST people in this world deserve another crack if they have come up short. The insults and abuse Bale got last season was over the top. He may have not lit it up as he did in the previous season, but to completely shun him completely and now ask for him to be dropped and even sold is just having two laughs and six bites of an apple-pie.
Never said Bale is the most gifted footballer technically. He is not great in tight spaces and is not one to do an amazing piece of skill that will lift you off your seat. But this is football, and this is the winning game and skills alone does not make you win. Bale has that X-factor that very footballers have. He is a guy that can come up and score WHEN IS NEEDED. That is actually a skill in and of itself, and is something that every big club must have in their team. Rafa recognizes that, and can see that there is something in Bale that he can extract and is perhaps working towards the goal of making him the superstar that Perez poured all that cheddar into. The first thing that has to be done to try and get this to happen has already been initiated by Benitez, and that is to play him in the free role and get his ass off that wing.
One of the first things you have to do as a manager when working with players for the first time, is finding what role and position best suits them. They may have been right back for the last five seasons, but you may find putting them as an attacking winger is more effective. Some strikers may work better as support-men, and other wingers may benefit from being in the middle. Bale is not a natural winger. I know what one looks like and I know how one plays. If you are a winger and you constantly keep cutting inside, then you should have no business playing that position. At least from what I gather, the whole point of a winger is to run the wing, put in crosses and from time to time cut inside. Bale does it too often to just be restricted to that role. That is why Benitez, being the resourceful cat that he is, saw how he was used at Spurs where he was at his most lethal and has decided to put him in that same free role and thus, free up more chances for the team and in his own words, to become more unpredictable for the opponents.
This could very well be Bale's last chance. It's just how things go at Madrid. They already want his neck after just one mediocre season. He has to really take his chance and just trust in his ability to read the game well and make those killer passes, take those killer shots and find spaces to harm the enemy as he did to such a good effect against teams in the Premiership. Liga is a whole different cake, but Bale has it in him to be effective against ANYONE. Talent is talent and he has it. I think the Madrid fans need to pipe down, and give their most expensive asset one more season to prove himself. He should actually be even given more time, but fair enough, he has now been given the free role and the pressure is on. If he flops...then I guess I was wrong(ish) but if he does well....I want EVERY Madrid fan to write me a triple-spaced written apology on the finest and most expensive paper they can find in Arial Black.
Give the boy his chance....
HH
