TThere’s nothing worse than the silence in soccer than the silence left when a goal doesn’t come. Real Madrid left Vallecas without that screaming voice that hid problems and erased doubts.
It was the first time the White team failed to score in this La Liga season, and it came at the worst possible time, as they were starting to lose their form after the Clasico. A break is both a necessary rest and an uncomfortable mirror.
Kylian Mbappe takes a circus shot next to Vincius Junior
It’s hard to bring the game to the field you want here, but I don’t blame it on the peak of emotions
It’s not a football, it’s not a punch…and it’s a feeling that something is still missing to move forward. The goalless draw with Rayo Vallecano confirmed that Xabi Alonso’s side are experiencing a difficult situation that cannot be explained by a lack of decisiveness alone. The team isn’t playing badly, but it’s not that they’re playing well either. They rule but don’t hurt. And the problem becomes even bigger when you don’t have the cutting-edge technology that Mbappe always had.
Overwhelming score of 52.94% hits Real Madrid, opening up debate
The journey from Anfield to Vallecas was short, but Real Madrid’s dark week has taken its toll. In England, Courtois had to play heroics to avoid an onslaught at the hands of Liverpool. In Vallekas, the White team achieved little, and what little they did were repeatedly thwarted by Stoll Dimitrievski. “It’s difficult to take the game in the direction you want. I’m not going to decide things based on emotions. In La Liga, every game is important, and today we couldn’t win,” the Basque coach said after the match.
Mbappé, as expected, reflected Real Madrid’s helplessness. He only touched the ball 27 times in 90 minutes, leaving almost no trace. His scoring streak (13 goals in 12 games) has come to an end, leaving him just two games away from equaling Cristiano Ronaldo’s legendary record from the 2014-15 season. Vallecas swallowed up the Frenchman and left Real Madrid without a beacon, the man who scored 18 of the 34 goals Real Madrid have scored so far.
An astonishing 52.94% of the team’s goals have been scored by the Frenchman, a statistic that highlights the ‘reliance on Mbappé’ to get the new project off the ground. Two games without a goal (four out of 16), two mistakes…and the feeling that everything seems more complicated without the number 10 on the back. To put this into context, Cristiano Ronaldo’s highest scoring season for Real Madrid (61 goals) was “only” 38.61% of Real Madrid’s 154 goals that season. Lionel Messi follows the same path. 73 out of 185 goals scored by Barcelona, 29.46%.
more questions than answers
But the problem is collective. The figures show Madrid have had more than 20 shots on goal in each of their last five La Liga games, something they haven’t done since 2010 under Pellegrini. However, this statistic is misleading. Very few of those shots are made with intent, with conviction, and with any real danger. Against Rajo, they only had five shots on target, and none of them were enough to change the scoreboard. And this pattern repeats. Poor possession, predictable attacks, lack of movement and over-reliance on Vinicius for line breaks. The Brazilian was once again the sole spark able to sway the game, but without a partner to match his power, his talent would be isolated among his rivals.
Having managed to steady the ship after the Clasico, Xabi Alonso finds himself facing the same question again. Breaks give you time to take a deep breath and reflect. Xabi Alonso has a job to do and his main concerns are getting freshness back in the final third, reconnecting with the strikers and above all regaining the confidence the group seemed to have just two weeks ago. The goals will come again, but Madrid cannot afford to sit back and wait. Leave it dry for now. No goals, no smiles, more questions than answers.
