Real Madrid are suffering from a lack of a goal scoring touch

Until just a few games ago, Madrid were a reliable machine in front of the opposition goal. An atomic clock that did not miss any opportunity with the goal. Ancelotti’s men scored in the first 29 official games of the season, but now they have failed to do so in two of the last three. No goals were scored against Real Sociedad and Mallorca is something that they will look to address, and quickly.

Madrid have resumed the league after the World Cup break with less firepower. In the 21 games prior to the stoppage, Los Blancos scored 50 goals, an average of 2.38 per game. In eight of those matches, they managed to score three goals or more. In the last eleven matches they have only scored 16, at a rate of 1.45 goals per game, and they have only managed to score three goals in two of them: against Villarreal and Atlético in the Cup. In the case of the derby, that includes extra time.

The team is a victim of Benzema-dependency more than ever. Madrid successfully played through the striker’s absences in the first part of the season, when the Frenchman missed nine games. Vinicius (10 goals), Valverde (8) and Rodrygo (7) kept up the goalscoring numbers, half of the 50 Real Madrid goals in that period. Benzema contributed six, which is 12%. After the break, Karim has scored 7 of 16 Real Madrid goals, 43.75%, a percentage that is higher than that of the entire last season as a whole, when he scored 37% of the goals of the team. Vinicius has scored three; Rodrigo, two; and Kroos, Asensio, Militao and Ceballos, one each.

The World Cup break has not helped Madrid

Madrid even shoot less than before the World Cup and also manage fewer shots between the posts. The side averaged 17.6 shots per game until the break; now it is down to 15.4. They used to shoot on goal 6.35 times per game; now that number is at 5.3. And in those statistics we have two periods of extra-time, against Valencia in the Super Cup and against Atlético in the Copa del Rey.

No aim in Mallorca

Madrid attempted 20 shots at Son Moix; only one was on target, the missed penalty. Without that penalty, Madrid’s expected goals (xG) against Mallorca was 0.14, according to Opta. Discounting the penalty, it was least amount of attacking danger that the team had created all season. Against Cacereño in the Cup the figure was 0.37 expected goals; against Atlético, in the derby, 0.88.

The good news is, however, that even if they can’t score, the man at the other end who keeps them out might be back quicker than we all thought.

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