Gareth Bale Has Now Become the Player Real Madrid Always Wanted Him to Be

The sample size was admittedly small, but you didn't need a doctorate in mathematics to recognise this one was significant.

It was just before 4 p.m. local time when Real Madrid and Real Sociedad's players emerged from the tunnel at Anoeta, the sun shining but dark clouds hovering, the sense of looming danger encapsulated. As the players walked out, you were already aware of the lineups, but still when you saw them, it struck you: This looked lightweight.

For Real Madrid, both Marcelo and Dani Carvajal were missing from the full-back posts. There was no Pepe in central defence. No Toni Kroos in midfield. And, most crucially, no Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema up front.

Ever since the arrivals of Ronaldo and Benzema at the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer of 2009, 263 of Madrid's 267 league games had featured at least one of the pair. In the four that hadn't: zero wins.

And this was the fifth.

For 79 tense and hard-fought minutes on Saturday, it looked as though that sample size would grow to five, but then Gareth Bale intervened.

Again.

With a soaring header.

Again.

To throw on the cape.

Again.

To prolong Madrid's fight.

Again.

"Real Madrid didn't win La Liga matches without Cristiano and Benzema," said AS, "...until Bale."

Alvaro Barrientos/Associated Press

There's now something very compelling about the mentality Bale has seemingly tapped into, the sense of growth striking.

On Saturday, when the Welshman leaped to meet Lucas Vazquez's cross from the right, he was only seven days removed from scoring the crucial winner against Rayo Vallecano—almost seven days to the minute. 

Indeed, in Vallecas, after a performance of utter dominance that had hauled his team back from the brink with Ronaldo absent and Benzema sitting in pain on the bench, Bale had scored at 5:39 p.m. to decide it. Here, it was 5:35 p.m.

And the expectation to do so, well, pffff.

In the buildup to Saturday's clash at Anoeta, the cover of Marca had declared that Bale was "at the controls." Over at AS, the essence of the message was "down to Bale," the daily adding that the Welshman was Madrid's "great hope" before finishing with "No pressure!"

Bale, of course, has often carried the pressure to be the guy. In his final season at Tottenham Hotspur, it was always that way. With Wales, it still is.

And yet, this was different. Very different. Spurs and Wales are one thing, Real Madrid is something else entirely.

As recently as 12 months ago—maybe even more recently than that—such a burden might have crippled the 26-year-old. But not now, not anymore.

On Saturday, Bale wasn't exactly vintage in the way he'd been in Vallecas—here, a golden chance was squandered and close shaves racked up—but again there was a relentlessness in him.

In attack, Madrid's whole game went through him. On the ground, he won duel after duel and race after race. In the air, he won everything, his header for the winner coming against two defenders just as so many others had.

ANDER GILLENEA/Getty Images

In such a crunch affair, the message it sent was convincing.

Like they had been last weekend against Rayo, like they had been against Villarreal before that, the potential consequences here were massive. And as the chances went by, your mind was taken back to last May when Bale misfired again and again as Madrid fell to Juventus at the Bernabeu in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

That night, an emblematic one for his entire 2014-15 season, Bale's misses felt like daggers. As they racked up, as each one was blown, the toll they seemed to take was enormous, the Bernabeu's ire eroding his belief and clarity.

But now, it's that which has changed.

As the current campaign has progressed, a force of will has grown within Bale, and with the season now at its climax, such a feeling is overwhelming. Looking empowered, assertive, his purpose clear and his belief soaring, the Welshman is beginning to take on an ominous look.

"Bale channels [his] inner Cristiano," said Marca on Saturday.

His inner Cristiano? Yep.

This is not the time for comparisons with the Portuguese or questions of value, but in Bale, some Ronaldo-like traits are starting to be evident.

Rather than simply being another star name or just another goalscorer, the Welshman is increasingly looking like a leader, a reference point.

Off the pitch, it's been evident with Bale addressing the media with growing frequency and authority, but it's on the pitch where it's most obvious: Around him, his team-mates are now drawn to him, seeking him out, looking for him at every opportunity—a recognition both from the group and from him that, without Ronaldo, he's the guy.

What's more, it's clear that Bale wants it. He can taste it. The burden, the responsibility, the expectation: It's being relished and revelled in.

"I'm very happy for Bale," manager Zinedine Zidane told reporters. Frankly, it's hard not to be. The journey to this point has been rocky, at times brutal, but now, here he is, playing like this.

After almost three years and €100 million, Bale is now the player Real Madrid always wanted him to be.

Follow @TimDCollins