Bale is Only Adapting to His New Club and He Needs Time- Ancelotti.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has urged club faithful to be patient with Gareth Bale, who is yet to impress at the Bernebeu following his record-breaking summer move. The Welshman is yet to find his peak since joining the ‘Los Blancos’ for £85m (100 million euros) from Tottenham Hotspur. He has not been able to complete a full game for his new club as he battles to return to full fitness.

Having started for the Madrid giants in Saturday’s 2-1 loss at the Camp Nou, a yellow card was all the 24-year-old winger had to show before he was replaced an hour into the match. Ancelotti accepts the fact that Bale has not unleashed his predatory form on the Spanish Primera Division but pointed out that new players need to be allowed some reasonable period of time to acclimatise to a new club and culture. “It’s true that in the last few games he hasn’t done extraordinary things, but a player who arrives at a new team, in a new culture, needs time to adapt,” Ancelloti told Spanish radio Cadena Cope. “The problem the player has is of adaptation. It’s not the same to play in Spain as in England.” There has been notions that Bale’s price tag played a part in the boss’ decision to start him ahead of Karim Benzema in Saturday’s ‘El Clasico’. The Italian tactician gambled with Bale, who he started alongside the pair of Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel Di Maria, up front without any recognised centre-forward as Frenchman, Benzema, was demoted to the bench.

The move however did not pay off as Madrid failed to create any clear-cut opportunity in the first-half before he injected some of his attackers into the game.

The Italian tactician played down such notion, stressing he considers all his players on a level-playing field.

“For me, Bale is a player the same as any other. I think he was a good signing for Real Madrid. Bale played because in my opinion he could play and create problems for Barcelona- only because of that.

“I didn’t put in Benzema because I didn’t want the opposing defenders to have a clear point of reference. Therefore, Bale started on the left and could change position with Di Maria.”