His ascent was dazzling. In the space of a short season, Luka Jovic has become one of the benchmarks for the position of striker in Europe. The Serbian striker has impressed everyone in Frankfurt, with 27 achievements in all competitions but above all, a profile that seemed to have disappeared somewhat in modern football: that of a real surface killer, perhaps a little limited when he has to participate in the development of the offensives of his team but lethal in the last meters. When he arrived in Madrid this summer, for an amount of 60 million euros it should be remembered, the expectations were therefore enormous. But for the moment, we are clearly on our hunger. It must be said that he did not have a lot of opportunities to show himself. Four small tenures in all competitions (fifteen appearances in total), in not frankly decisive meetings, facing the promoted Mallorca and Osasuna for example, having to be satisfied with the crumbs the rest of the time.
With the presence of Karim Benzema and a 4-3-3 that leaves room for only one leading player, inevitably, nobody expected to see him chaining tenure in big games. But it should, a priori, be the first option off the bench for the attack, and be able to grab a longer playing time. In the last four Real Madrid league games, he has played a total of … 36 minutes. Even when Zinedine Zidane opted for a system with two points, he preferred to align and reposition players like Gareth Bale or Rodrygo to accompany Karim Benzema. It must be said that when he was on the ground, the Serb did not really convince, with only one small goal, during his team’s big victory against Leganés (5-0) on November 30th.
A match or even two to convince everyone
He still suffers from a fairly blatant lack of integration on the ground, and is also not really successful since he has already hit the posts several times, in addition to having seen the VAR cancel him achievements he was already celebrating. It’s the snake that dies its tail: how do you want Zidane to give Luka Jovic time if he is not good on the field? But how can the attacker be successful if he is lacking in rhythm and must each time enter an unfavorable context? The Frenchman himself confided in mid-December that the former Benfica had “Need to play more regularly”. A situation that even made him lose his place in the selection … The Spanish press also evokes a distant relationship with his partners in the locker room, especially because of the language barrier.
With the absence of Karim Benzema, Eden Hazard and Gareth Bale, everything suggests that he will hold against Valencia tonight, then probably in the final if the Merengues win. There too, he will not necessarily be in the best mood, since he will probably be accompanied by Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo or Lucas Vazquez. In a clearly experimental attack and therefore without automatisms. One can imagine seeing a Real Madrid chain centers in the area for the Serb, who will be keen to prove that he can have an important role to play in this team. The Spanish press is in any case waiting for it at the turn, like the title “Jovic’s Super Cup” Daily AS, or the articles “It’s Jovic’s time” of Marca and ABC. “He works well and will score a lot of goals”said Zinedine Zidane Tuesday evening at a press conference. It’s up to him to respond on the ground.
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