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Real Madrid fans on social media have criticized midfielder Dani Ceballos following the club's 2-1 win over Las Palmas.
Los Blancos visited the Canary Islands for a La Liga encounter on Saturday, January 27. Manager Carlo Ancelotti handed Ceballos his first league start of the season, with the latter lining up alongside Eduardo Camavinga, Toni Kroos and Brahim Diaz in midfield.
The 27-year-old completed 24 of his 31 passes, lost possession 10 times and was also dribbled past once. He had 44 touches of the ball before being replaced by Fede Valverde in the 59th minute.
Despite Real Madrid winning the match, their fans on X (formerly Twitter) weren't impressed with Ceballos' display. One of them wrote:
"I’ve seen enough terminate ceballos contract and send him to Tajikistan"
Another tweeted:
"Ceballos might be the worst player to ever have fanboys"
Here are some more reactions from fans:
Part of the criticism faced by Ceballos seemed to stem from Real Madrid's inability score during his time on the pitch. In fact, Ancelotti's men were trailing 1-0 after Las Palmas scored in the 53rd minute through former Barcelona forward Sandro Ramirez.
Just six minutes after Ceballos' substitution, Los Blancos were back level after Vinicius Junior scored. Aurelien Tchouameni then sealed all three points for the visitors in the 84th minute.
Interestingly, Ceballos' initial midfield partners, Camavinga and Kroos got the assists for the first and second goals respectively.
Looking at Dani Ceballos' stats for Real Madrid this season
Ceballos' future at the Santiago Bernabeu seemed to be in doubt last summer. His contract with Real Madrid was set to expire and Inter Milan were rumored to be interested in signing him (via Sempre Milan). However, he eventually signed an extension until the summer of 2027 and stayed on with the team.
However, the presence of Camavinga, Tchouameni, Valverde, Kroos and Luka Modric means he has only featured sparingly. A hamstring injury also saw him miss matches at the start of the season.
Ceballos has played 18 times across competitions this term, but has started just four times, recording one goal. Eleven of those appearances have come in La Liga, where he has averaged 0.3 key passes, 0.4 tackles, 1.1 recoveries and 1.8 duels won in 16.3 minutes per game.
