1. Asier Illarramendi is pretty good
*crowd starts booing* Hey! Back off! *they boo even louder* You know it's true! Ok, maybe not, and that's a bit sad. For starters, the guy dresses up as Batman! *crowd calms down a bit*. He also rides bulls, dyes his beard and does other ridiculous stuff. Also, he's a pretty good midfielder. Boom. *the crowd agrees and regrets bashing #24*
Seriously though, Illarramendi is a pretty good player, and one that can be very useful for Carlo Ancelotti for the toughest stretch of the year. He is a very accurate passer, he's great in recovery tasks, and his positioning and pacing can be excellent, like they were against Celta.
Sadly, whenever people try to argue he is not good enough for Real Madrid, they come up with ONE game (the Dortmund game last season), one in which many other players sucked as much as he did. It's very unfair to reduce Illarra, or any other player, to one bad performance. It's like that single game decided he was not worthy of ever looking at him again. That said, I'm not asking his critics to worship him after one game either, just to give him a chance.
It would be so awesome if people started paying attention to what Illarramendi can actually do for this team. He's very talented, and he's ready and capable of playing a significant role with this team if needed.
2. Toni Kroos' signing was the deal of the decade
How much did Real Madrid pay for Kroos? 25m? Can you believe that? Wow. I love to think (mostly to upset the haters) that Cristiano Ronaldo's price was a terrific deal after his ridiculous production, but Kroos'? Man, Bayern Munich must be feeling pretty dumb right now, and you know what? GOOD. They suck.
Yesterday, thanks to Illarramendi's amazing performance, Kroos was able to play a bit more freely. That, together with his terrific passing and crossing skills resulted in many goalscoring chances for Real Madrid. On defense, he had an impact too. The German star just can do it all, and he does it week after week, with such style and class.
3. Depth is so cool
First of all, injuries suck. They are the worst thing in this universe after Xavi Hernández. James Rodríguez's calf injury could keep him out of the Club World Cup, which just sucks. Last week we were just celebrating about having Jesé back, just to watch James leave the pitch early against Celta a few days later.
Thing is, this team is so well built that they can overcome a loss as big as James'. Isco is on fire, Illarramendi just proved he can help and play right next to Kroos. You still have Bale and Jesé up there, so the team should be ok without James. Don't get me wrong, it's a huge loss, but not one Ancelotti can't overcome.
4. Cristiano Ronaldo is unreal
Biggest understatement in the history of understatements.
We are witnessing history with this demigod and we do it on a weekly basis. Thanks to his hat-trick, he became the fastest player ever to score 200 goals in La Liga history, doing so in just 178 games. That's an unreal average of 1.12 goals per game. Zarra did it in 219 games and Messi in 235. Oh, and the hat-trick? That's his 23rd, making him the player with most hat-tricks in La Liga history, breaking Zarra and Di Stéfano's record (22). That was also his 23rd goal of La Liga so far.
There shouldn't even be a discussion about who should win the Ballon d'Or. It really is a very simple choice. If Ronaldo doesn't win it, I propose we riot. Where? No idea. Let's just destroy things.
5. The sky is the limit for this team
18 consecutive wins is just an incredible accomplishment. At this point, they are heavy favourites to win La Liga, Copa del Rey and the Champions League. A loss will come sooner or later, but it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.
Kudos to Carlo Ancelotti for his job after two horrendous losses early in the year. This Real Madrid looks as happy or even happier than they were in 2012 when they last won La Liga. The new guys have adapted really well to their new roles and guys like Ronaldo and Karim Benzema are better than ever. Defensively, the team looks way more confident these days (even if there are some bad stretches at times). Overall, it's tough to complain about anything. The streak lives on, and hopefully it will last a long, long time.