Eduardo Camavinga has shown more improvement this season than fans are willing to admit

Real Madrid's win over AEK Athens on Wednesday showed some very good positives that fans could write home about. There are some things that have annoyed Real Madrid fans for a very long time, but now it seems like, slowly but surely, some of them have been fixed or at least are in the process of being fixed.

Real Madrid have been streaming in these last few games. Even though the match against AEK Athens proved to be a lot more difficult due to the rotations and the quality that their opponents showed on the day, it still had some big positives that people should not ignore. One of them was the performance of Eduardo Camavinga.

Camavinga was one of the better players for Real Madrid in the pivot role next to Bernardo Silva in the midfield. He was able to pass the ball around neatly and also dribble through pressure almost effortlessly in the process. There were a couple of fouls here and there, but nothing terrible.

Be that as it may, Camavinga showed that he has improved quite a bit since last season. Even though he's not at his absolute best so far, things are rapidly improving for the Frenchman. Working with Zinedine Zidane and Jose Mourinho seems to have helped him a lot, and fans are finally seeing a more confident Camavinga, something that was missing for over a year.

Camavinga's dribbling impressed Real Madrid fans most because he could get out of trouble so effortlessly. He has struggled in tight spaces sometimes, but in the game against AEK Athens, he was able to use his body absolutely perfectly in a way that fans had hoped would become the norm for the player. It hasn't, but there is still time for that to happen. On Wednesday, Camavinga was able to show that he still has that in his locker.

He also added another level of press resistance that Real Madrid simply do not have with Aurelien Tchouameni. Pairing Silva with Camavinga worked out quite well for Mourinho, simply because these two midfielders are very good with the ball at their feet and they're able to carry it without that many issues. They're good dribblers, and they're more confident on the ball than Tchouameni has been in recent months.

Even though this is not a reactionary post about how Camavinga should bench Tchouameni, it is still worth keeping note of the fact that Camavinga is definitely improving. He can eventually start competing with his French compatriot for a spot in the lineup.

Whether he is able to consistently play this way remains to be seen, and that has ultimately been the biggest barrier for Camavinga. He has never been able to remain consistent for a prolonged period. Hopefully, with Mourinho and Zidane continuously working alongside him for club and country, this changes, and fans are finally able to see the true, consistent version of the player that they've wanted to see in the last five years.