Rodrygo Goes is finally finding his goal scoring form at Real Madrid

Rodrygo Goes, Real Madrid’s Brazilian winger, has finally found form after a shaky start to the LaLiga season in which many questioned his ability to perform in the new role given to him by coach Carlo Ancelotti.

One season, two faces: The Rodrygo who could not find the goal and the Rodrygo who can’t stop scoring. The 22-year-old from Sao Paulo turned on the magic in the first match against Braga and since then he has picked up the pace even further. The last three games have served to showcase the radical change in the goal scoring rate of the number ‘11′.

The numbers of a striker who hit a mental block in front of goal at the start of the season have nothing in comparison to those of the true ‘9′ we have seen in the last three games, in which he has scored five goals and got four assists.

Rodrygo never lost his Champions League touch

The season started in the best possible way for Rodrygo, who scored the opening goal at San Mamés on the first match day. After that, for more than two months, he drew blank after blank in front of the goal with Madrid. A goal against Braga was a slight respite but he had to wait three more matches - again, against Braga - for Rodrygo to unleash his deadliest side, the version of the player that has turned him into the team’s second top scorer with seven goals.

“I’m calm as always because I know the goals will come my way. It’s just a matter of time. It’s just a matter of continuing to train and keep trying,” said Rodrygo after the match against Union Berlin, when his drought had already gone on for 481 minutes, more than five entire matches. And he didn’t give up: 46 attempts (just 14 of them on target) in 1,036 minutes were enough to score his first two goals.

And then came the change: in the last three games, he has taken 13 shots, only eight of them on target: with them he has sealed the win over Braga, extended the win over Valencia and propelled Madrid to a 0-3 victory in Cádiz. He has gone from a 42.4% shooting accuracy to 66.7% and his conversion rate has risen from 4.3% to 38.5%.

‘Things are going well for me and let’s keep going’

It is not only in goals that Rodrygo’s turnaround can be measured. In the first 15 games he had only provided one assist, to Joselu against Las Palmas; in the last three he provided four decisive passes. He’s also becoming more decisive in terms of his dribbling numbers: he’s completed 12 in his last three games when he was averaging just 1.4 dribbles per game previous to his explosion.

“I’m very happy, it’s the result of my work, I’m working to score a lot of goals, to provide assists, to help my team. Things are going well for me and let’s keep going,” he said after the match at the Estadio Nuevo Mirandilla. Rodrygo is smiling, Madrid is smiling with him.

Real Madrid’s next game is against Napoli on Wednesday, November 29, with kick off at 3 p.m. ET / noon PT.