Karim Benzema raised his hand to launch the fouls, a mission that in Madrid has a first sword in Sergio Ramos. The problem for both of them is that Zidane’s team barely have shots from the front to score goals.
So far this season, counting only the league games, Madrid has had four goal options in what the English call free kick. It is an astonishing figure for a team that spends most of the game in rival territory. It is, for example, the same number of pitches that Huesca has had or 14 less than Valladolid, two teams in decline. Among the 98 teams competing in the five major European championships, only two have had fewer opportunities: Sheffield United y Spezia.
On the other side of that classification appears Barcelona. Up to 25 times the team has placed Koeman the ball in a good position for a sniper. Messi He has executed 22, of which two ended up in rival networks. To that he adds 11 more options among the rest of the competitions, for none of Madrid.
The teams with the most goals from free kicks in the league are Southampton (three out of 11) and Wolfsburg (three out of 9).
In the 28 games that the Real Madrid This campaign, only in three did he have free-kick opportunities: two against Eibar (launched by Ramos and Asensio) and an Atltico de Madrid and Betis (both for the captain).
Last season, on June 24 against the Mallorca, Madrid ended a streak of 528 days without scoring from a direct free kick. It was Sergio Ramos who ended a streak that lasted since Ceballos Marc at Villamarn on January 9, 2019, with Solar as a coach.
Cristiano Ronaldo left Madrid with 20 goals scored from a free kick in 313 shots, always limiting in league games. Since then, the white team has only scored the two cited fouls (Ceballos and Ramos) in 41 pitches. In other words, Madrid have an average of 0.4 direct free hits per game. In that time, Messi has scored 13 of 116 and Barcelona has had 121 in 96 games: 1.2 per appointment.
Behind these data appears the shadow of the collapse of Madrid’s punch in recent seasons. The loneliness of Benzema says it, accompanied last season by Ramos as the second top scorer (12 goals) and that in the present his best help against the opposite goal is Casemiro (five points).
At the end of the last day of the league in the five major leagues, Madrid has 89 shots on target, which places it in 36th place! from a ranking led by Barcelona with 140. In the scoring balance, the Whites are ranked 21st with 35 goals in La Liga. At the top, Bayern: 57. Of the 16 teams remaining in the Champions League, only Chelesa, Lazio and Sevilla score less in the League.
With two penalties in favor in LaLiga, there are only two teams in Spain that have gone less than eleven meters: Huesca (once) and Cdiz (none). That figure rises to 12 teams when the 98 of the five major European championships are ordered. Beyond errors or arbitration successes, it seems clear that this Madrid generates little within the area.
A revealing fact is that since he left Cristiano, Madrid has caused 22 penalties in LaLiga, two more than Barcelona, but what is strange is that the most knocked down footballers in the area are two whose injuries have left little play: Asensio and Hazard, three each.
Another thing that this Madrid has badly is something that it has always shown: its ability to overcome games, to rescue victories from impossible situations. This season he was only able to turn the score around in the Betis field. In the rest of the games that have been seen with the score against at some point, a total of nine, he lost in eight. Only in the Borussia field was he able to save the furniture and go from 2-0 to 2-2, which will later be gold to be in the second round. In addition, against Levante, Alcoyano and Valencia he went 0-1 and ended up defeated, while in the fields of Villarreal and Elche He yielded two draws after opening the scoring.
No one doubted that Madrid was going to miss a player who scored an average of 50 goals per season: 450 in nine Blancos. But that the damage was going to be so great was not in the plans. At Juve, where he has broken the world record for goals, he has 87 goals. Since he left Madrid, the white team has scored 255 goals. Apart from Benzema’s large numbers (72 without penalties), the rest of Madrid’s forwards who have played, 10 counting Lucas Vzquez, remain at 83.