Alarm bells over Karim Benzema's recent lack of goals
The French striker has only found the net once in the past ten games and trails Lionel Messi in LaLiga's top scorer ranking.
After back-to-back defeats at the hands of Levante in LaLiga and Manchester City in the Champions League, Sunday's win over Barcelona has lifted the mood around the Bernabéu and Valdebebas after two second half goals from Vinicius and Mariano secured maximum points for Zidane's men. Overseeing a comeback against City in the Champions League is now being viewed in a more optimistic light after the El Clásico win and which sees Real Madrid emerge as favourites to win the 2019-20 LaLiga title. With just 12 games left to play, Zidane's side (at least on paper), have a better run of fixtures in the remaining months of the campaign.
Goal shy Benz.
If Madrid are to add to their trophy cabinet come the end of the season, the team will need to see No. 9 Karim Benzema step up to the mark after a poor run of form in LaLiga from the French striker. Benzema has only found the net once in the past ten league games bagging the winner over Atlético at the Bernabéu as part of the 1-0 derby win.
This contrasts with the version of Benzema we saw at the start of the season where the French player struck 12 goals in the first 16 matches of the 2019-20 campaign. His four goals in the Champions League group stage (two against Galatasaray and two against PSG) led many to think that Real Madrid's scoring issues would be a thing of the past. 2020 has yet to see the 32-year-old find his goal-groove and two strikes (vs. Atleti in LaLiga and against Zaragoza in the Spanish Cup) to date this year is a disappointing return for a player of his calibre.
Zidane will be hoping that Benzema can address his goal-shyness this weekend as the team travel to Seville to face Real Betis on Sunday night (kick-off 21:00 CET). In the past Betis have proven to have been one of the sides where the Frenchman has had the knack of hitting the target with Benzema bagging seven goals in 13 games against 'Los Verdiblancos'.