When Cristiano Ronaldo swapped the Real Madrid white kits for the black and white stripes of Juventus, he took his massive goal contribution with him.
The first Ronaldo-less season culminated in a 63-goal season for Los Blancos, a 31 goal decrease from the previous season and the club’s worst output of the new millennium. A third-place finish was largely tied to the team’s scoring woes.
Fast forward to the 2019/20 and Los Blancos are once again the champions of La Liga. Though the club is enjoying the spoils of victory, the 70 goals scored, while an improvement upon the previous season, is still a cause for concern. Before the Ronaldo’s departure, Real Madrid’s lowest scoring output of the 21st century was the 66 goals in the 2006–07 season.
Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos produced career seasons, but no other Madrid player scored even five goals. Given the recent investment at the outside-forward positions, this is a troubling stat.
This data analysis will examine Real Madrid’s muddled group of outside-forwards. Though it’s the deepest part of the team, at least in terms of quantity, there was a staggering void left by the wide players. For a side that emphasises the wide-forwards as much as Madrid, Zinedine Zidane and his staff must identify the most talented and cohesive group of wide players ahead of the 2020/21 campaign. This analysis will use 2019/20 statistics to identify the club’s top performers at the position, using the data analysis as a means of identifying the club’s options ahead of the new season.
Goal Contributions
2017/18 saw Ronaldo 26 goals in 27 appearances while Bale chipped in with an additional 16 goals in 26 matches. Between nine players, the current crop of Real Madrid outside-forwards produced a mere 17 goals in 38 La Liga matches. Though the end result was a title-winning season, statistics show some cause for concern, primarily from the lack of production from the wingers.
One of the beauties of the BBC was the interaction of Ronaldo and Benzema on the left-wing. The Portuguese and Frenchman understood how to manipulate the opposition’s defensive shape to create running lanes behind the defence and open spaces for each other in the box. Add in the streaking runs and pinpoint distributions of Marcelo and you can why Los Blancos dominated the left-flank.
Ronaldo and Bale are cut from a similar mould, each offering past Madrid sides with incredible goal-scoring rates, untracked movements through the opposition’s defensive structure and the ability to beat defenders on the dribble. Looking at the current squad, the only winger who fits that type is Eden Hazard, who also suffered an injury-laden season with minimal production.
To gauge the current group’s goal-scoring statistics, the chart below looks at xG, xG per 90 minutes and goals scored. Our objective is to see which players offered the most total expected goals value over the course of the season while also identifying the contributions on a standard metric. Additionally, since none of the wingers scored more than four goals, our colour-coded points list goal-scoring exploits from zero to four.
Vinícius Júnior is the standout in the chart. With his four goals on the season, 4.79 xG and 0.28 xG P90, he’s the leader in nearly every category. His one category loss is to Brahim Diaz. In limited action, the young Spaniard registered an impressive 0.52 xG P90, but his 217 total La Liga minutes certainly inflate the total. Marco Asensio’s three goals on 1.19 xG and 407 minutes is certainly impressive. His contributions during the post-COVID-19 suspension were highly influential in the title rally.
Elsewhere, Rodrygo’s three-goal season leaves something to be desired. With just 2.22 xG over 1223 minutes, he wasn’t nearly effective enough during the 2019/20 campaign. It’s tough to judge Isco too harshly in this graph since he’s primarily a playmaker, but this does give a sense of the scoring void coming from his side of the formation. Add in the recurring injuries to Bale, Hazard and Lucas Vázquez and the goal-scoring troubles are better understood.
