Barça's MSN dependency grows, as Madrid show sharing is caring

Sevilla - Real Madrid

While FC Barcelona have increased their dependence on Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar (or the MSN), Real Madrid players on the other hand are sharing their responsibility for the number of goals scored for more widely.

12 Madrid players with 4+ goals

Goals: BBC vs MSN

*Real Madrid have played 29 official games to Barcelona's 28

The contribution of the Barça trident to Luis Enrique's team’s goal record this season is almost 20 percentage points higher than Los Blancos’ first choice trio (The ‘BBC’ of Bale, Benzema and Cristiano). The MSN have netted 62.03% of the Catalan club’s total goals; while the BBC’s ratio is 42.17%.

The scoring ability of Madrid’s squad has allowed Zidane to cope with injuries to all three of the BBC at some point during this campaign, with Fabio Coentrao the only outfield player not to find the net since the 2016/17 season got underway. In fact, a dozen Real Madrid players have scored four or more goals.

7 Barca players yet to find the net 

 The distribution of Barcelona goalscorers is more concentrated. Behind Messi (26) and Suarez (16), Arda Turan is the player with the next highest amount of goals with 11. However, aside from those three, just 26 goals have come from 11 other first-team players (the same amount that Messi has bagged on his own) while seven players in total have not scored at all.

Total goal distribution: Real Madrid v Barcelona