Since Higuaín left, no striker has finished curdling at Real Madrid
Bernabeudigital.com
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Karim Benzema, Real Madrid
© photo de www.imagephotoagency.it
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Karim Benzema He has been the starting striker for Real Madrid since the summer of 2013, when Gonzalo Higuain headed for Naples. Until then we had the famous story of the dog and the cat, with both alternating in the starting lineups. But since that year, the Frenchman has been indisputable and all the strikers who have passed through the white team have ended up overshadowed, being complements of the Frenchman, unable to fight him for ownership, or to achieve consistency or help the team in the scoring task.
Alvaro Morata. He was the first and the one that gave Benzema the most “problems”, helping Madrid with 8 goals in the 2013-14 campaign and with a whopping 20 goals in 43 games in 2016-17, one more than Karim in that season. Undoubtedly, the Spaniard, who unlike the rest wanted to leave the team at his own risk despite the fact that the club had him, has been the best complement that Benzema has had and the one who gave him the most trouble, being the only one who it is saved from the list of shipwrecks that comes now.
Chicharito. He arrived on loan in the 2014-15 academic year to replace Morata, and his performance was not excellent, but it was not bad either. He scored 9 goals in 33 games, helping in this goalscoring task, especially with that goal against Atlético that gave the pass to the Champions League semifinals. However, he was not convinced and left the way he had come.
Jesse Rodriguez. In the 2015-16 campaign, the Canarian was Benzema’s substitute striker, but he was only able to score 6 goals; which caused Morata to return the following year in that spectacular season that has already been mentioned.
Borja Mayoral. He stayed in the first team in 2017-18 as a complement to Karim and managed to score 7 goals (3 of them in the first two rounds of the Copa del Rey) in 24 games and was not able to argue with Benzema for ownership.
All of the above had lived under the protection of Cristiano Ronaldo and the enormous goalscoring record of the Portuguese. For the substitute center forwards it was not so necessary to contribute to the cause of goalscoring, only when Benzema was absent. However, in the 2018-19 campaign that changes, and Karim’s accessories will become more important.
Mariano Diaz. He was chosen to cover part of the goals that Real Madrid had lost with the departure of CR7, and help when Benzema could not help the cause or was not fine. But the one who has never been fine has been the Hispanic-Dominican. He only 12 goals in the 73 games he has played since 2018.
Luka Jovic. He was signed in 2019 precisely because Mariano was not convincing, but the truth is that the Serbian has signed even worse numbers. He only 3 goals in the 51 games he has played with Real Madrid. A poor record. The biggest shipwreck of all, since his signing cost 60 million.
Then came the pandemic and the betrayal of a Mbappe with which the club was going to go back to the times of Cristiano Ronaldo, when the role of substitute center forwards in the scoring aspect was not so prevailing. Now, Madrid is looking to get rid of those last two shipwrecks (Jovic and Mariano) and hit the shot with the new complement of Benzemawho lives quietly but without lowering the bar, knowing that he has little help in the scoring role, except for what this year has helped vinicius. And for that reason, because most of the precedents are grotesque, because of Karim’s great performance and also because of the bad background of those relays that ended up shipwrecking in Chamartín, the merengue entity is thinking about it so much. It is not going to sign for signing. There will be no big outlays this summer, only when Benzema’s alternative has to be brought in, the invincible and the best striker in the world.
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