Pre-season summary: Real Madrid remains the same

Real Madrid closed the U.S. tour confirming that maintains its weapons led the team to win a historic League. His punching power is unquestionable: white team has score 14 goals in four macthes and in two of them scored 5; against Los Angeles Galaxy and, most surprisingly, against Milan. On the defensive, there has been some sloppiness, but has conceded just three goals, one against the Galaxy, another against Santos Laguna and one against Milan. Against Celtic managed to get a clean net, without giving chances.

Real Madrid (Pre-season 2012-2013)

Mourinho has a fully engaged team, which is well known and it plays almost by heart. This allows them to solve some of the matches at half throttle. The ball starts to run the more than the player and Mourinho knows it is better. When analyzing the response of the players, there are some obvious facts. The first, Coentrao will be another year one of the trusted men of Mourinho. He already said in the preseason, but has shown with facts. It is the player that has played more minutes on the tour, although it should be noted that there was not a natural replacement for him because Marcelo was in the Olympics with Brazil.

The other conclusion is that Cristiano Ronaldo remains committed to play until the last minute of a friendly match. It is the second player with more minutes, ahead of Casillas. Another point to consider is the duel Higuain-Benzema. Each one has scored a goal and the coach keeps the doubt: although the most influential match, against Milan, was played by the French, on the other hand was the Argentine who has played more minutes: 26 minutes longer than Karim.

The tour has also confirmed Nacho as the revelation of youth squad players. Without a substitute for Arbeloa on the right side, the defensive player has finished playing in every game and has added 162 minutes. In the duel Varane-Albiol, no doubts. Mourinho insisted for a time to let Albiol aside, but the tour has shown that between the Spanish and the French, who has just been called by his national team, the Spanish has advantage. Albiol is the fifth player who has played more minutes.

Ramos, Alonso and Arbeloa played a very similar range of minutes, like Khedira and Özil. Mourinho has dosed the efforts given that they leave this week to play with their national teams. About Kaka, the coach has demonstrated he is not going to separate the Brazilian player from the team. He has played some minutes but moves into the group of players who will have less chances as Nacho, Granero, Sahin, Morata or Jesse. The others have played more than him. Special mention is the latter, Jesse. The jewel in the youth teams, who scored in his first game, playing only 37 minutes.

However, the man of the tour is Callejon. He has played every game and always at good level. It is without doubt the greatest asset of the Portuguese coach from the bench. Callejon finished as top scorer of the tour with three goals. Again, asks for a place in the starting lineup, but the problem is always the same: who is going to leave the place at the starting team?