Six goals between Cristiano Ronaldo and
Karim Benzema in the current LaLiga season is a woefully disappointing
return, according to MARCA.
Therein lies an explanation for many of
Real Madrid problems this season, with a 14 point gap between the
reigning champions and the current league leaders, Barcelona, who look
destined to lift the trophy.
That statistic is particularly worrying
in the case of Cristiano Ronaldo, a player who has always averaged more
than a goal a game since his arrival in Spain.
With 422 strikes from 416 outings , his average is 1.01 goals per game.
This season though, he has become a
Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde style player, unstoppable in the Champions
League with nine goals in six games, but weak in LaLiga with only four
goals, against Getafe, Malaga and Sevilla (a brace).
This time last year, the Portuguese international had notched 12 times.
The campaign didn’t get off to the
greatest of starts for Ronaldo, having to serve a suspension for his
sending off in the first leg of the Supercopa de Espana and missing the
opening four league games as a result.
Without their talisman in attack,
Zinedine Zidane’s team got off to a slow start, with draws against
Valencia and Levante in his absence, and on both occasions a goalscorer
could have turned one point into three.
Even with Ronaldo back in the side, things didn’t improve.
After playing the full 90 minutes in the
first defeat of the season, 1-0 at home to Real Betis, he failed to
score against Alaves and Espanyol too and was forced to wait until
matchday eight to score against newly promoted Getafe and open his
account for the season.
Another four blanks followed, against
Eibar, Girona, Las Palmas and Atletico Madrid, with four points dropped
in the process, but then he did seem to find form. That was until El
Clasico against Barcelona on Saturday, when he once again failed to
produce the goods.
Benzema’s case is even more concerning,
with just five goals in 20 games in all competitions this season, an
average of 0.25 goals per game.
Two came in LaLiga, one in the Supercopa and two in the Champions League, both in the thrashing of APOEL.
Halfway through the 2016/17 season, he had five in league action alone.
He is some way off the 32 goals he
scored under Jose Mourinho in 2011/12, the best return of his career, or
even the 28 goals he managed in 2015/16.
Last season, Benzema managed 19 strikes but even then his average was far superior to his current form, at 0.35 goals per game.
It’s clear where Real Madrid are going wrong this season, and it lies in the lack of goals from their superstars.
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