Analysing Gareth Bale's Performance vs. Real Valladolid

This is why Real Madrid sent a record transfer fee to Tottenham to acquire Gareth Bale. 

After a start to his Real Madrid career that wasn't living up to lofty expectations, in one match against Real Valladolid on Saturday, Gareth Bale showed the Los Blancos faithful why those expectations were so high in the first place. 

With talisman Cristiano Ronaldo sidelined with injury for an expected two weeks, Bale picked up the slack and then some. 

The 24-year-old picked up a hat-trick and assisted on the fourth goal in a 4-0 victory at Santiago Bernabeu. It was certainly to the delight of the home fans. 

Los Blancos dominated this match by holding 65 percent of possession and taking nine more on-target shots; however, for the first 33 minutes, Madrid couldn't score. It was fair to wonder if this team would have the same kind of firepower without Ronaldo. 

That is when Bale put his team on the scoreboard. 

Just three minutes later, Karim Benzema added the second goal. He can thank Bale for that after this pinpoint cross:

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Benzema could have just kept running and never looked at the ball—Bale's pass would have ricocheted off his head and into the goal. 

This was already more scoring than Real Madrid would need, but Bale was far from content. He added two more in the second half. 

His second goal was a bit opportunistic as Bale found himself in the right place at the right time to deliver a accurate one-touch past goalkeeper Diego Marino Villar in the 64th minute.

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Bale still wasn't done scoring.

In the 89th minute, he got his first hat-trick for Real Madrid.

This one was a good give-and-go effort with Marcello. Bale delivered an accurate pass to Marcello and then burst his tremendous speed to explode through the hole and get in position to net an easy left-footed goal. 

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It was an impressive performance that displayed Bale's blend of speed, power and explosiveness. 

Any doubts that Bale's talent wouldn't translate to La Liga can be put to rest after this performance, and I suspect he will continue to impress as Ronaldo recovers from injury.