The lone soldier

Gareth Bale's game against Basel started a few heads shaking in the Real Madrid dugout. The Welsh winger hardly touched the ball and seemed to be in a world of his own, disconnected, distant. The only moment where we caught a glimpse of the Welshman's magic was when he hit the woodwork - a shot that should have gone in.

The player's stats are something to be concerned about. He gave just 16 passes, just two more than Keylor Navas the goalkeeper did. In 95 minutes. That makes it a pass every six minutes. He was by far the player that least looked for the ball, looked to connect with his teammates. He was quite simply AWOL. The second-least involved player was Arbeloa, with 26 passes. The other boys from the BBC, Ronaldo and Benzema, passed the ball 32 and 28 times respectively. The Portuguese connected twice as many times as Bale did. On the other end of the scale we had Kroos with 77 and James with 70.

When Bale looked to move the ball on, his passes were shared out thus: four to Isco, three to Coentrao, two to James and one apiece to Varane, Ramos, Kroos, Benzema and Arbeloa. Of those 16, 15 hit their mark. He missed one, meaning 94% efficiency.

This figure is not in line with his previous Champions League games. Against Basel at the Bernabéu, he meted out 41 passes, 30 finding their man. Against Ludogorets, he passed the ball 32 times, 26 of which proved successful.