Real Madrid are no longer leaders of La Liga. Casa Blanca left the throne to Girona, now first alone. However, on Sunday evening, the Merengues had a rather affordable match, at home and against Rayo Vallecano, a team installed in the first part of the table certainly, but far from the level of its neighbor on paper. And yet, Carlo Ancelotti’s troops had to settle for a 0-0 draw, at the end of a duel which they certainly dominated, but where they were too powerless in the last gesture.
And that clearly worries the Madrilenians. Not Ancelotti though. ” I’m not worried. We made crosses, good passes. We tried every way possible. We tried until the end. We are unhappy with the result, but not with the match, we deserved to win”, confided the Italian after this little Madrid derby. The media are much sharper, and believe that Real Madrid has too few offensive solutions. He is too dependent on Bellingham, and when the Englishman doesn’t make a difference, no one succeeds.
The two Brazilians in the viewfinder
An observation that may seem harsh, especially when we know that there is a player like Vinicius Junior up front. But for everyday A.S., Bellingham is all alone. The newspaper notably highlights certain statistics to support its remarks. From a collective point of view already: Real Madrid have scored fewer goals than Barça, Girona and Atlético who have one game less. 23 in total. And most importantly, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo bring about half of what they brought at this height last season from a statistical standpoint. Vinicius, for example, has 3 goals and 2 assists, when he had 5 goals and 4 assists at this same time of the season last year. For Rodrygo, it’s even worse: 2 goals and 1 assist, compared to 5 goals and 5 assists at the start of November 2022.
The same goes for Joselu, who certainly scored five goals without starting, but Benzema had already scored seven times last year. Bellingham has scored 13 goals this season, or 44.8% of his team’s total goals. A worrying dependence therefore, while Marca specifies that Real Madrid failed to win 3 of the 5 matches in which the former Borussia Dortmund player did not score. Who to solve this problem? For the Madrilenians, there are not many doubts: Kylian Mbappé and/or Erling Haaland…
