Filling the void
With Cristiano Ronaldo swapping Madrid for Turin after winning three straight Champions League titles, it was inevitable that the focal point of Real Madrid’s attack would shift. Who’s the player that has stepped into the void left? Benzema, a player that has been within Madrid’s ranks for approaching a decade. Finally, it appears that the Frenchman is able to play his “true football” as he mentioned in an interview with French Football.
One area to look into initially is how Benzema’s role of provider has changed since the departure of Ronaldo. A comparison between Benzema’s heatmaps in 17/18 & 18/19 show how his position has become more central, in more dangerous areas such as Zone 14 and increased activity in the penalty box. Couple this with how Benzema has increased the number of shots per game from 2.24 last season to 2.97 in 18/19. In addition to this, there has been a marked increase in the accuracy of his shooting, his shots on target accuracy has risen from 34% in 17/18 to 48% this season.
Goals, goals, goals
Naturally, strikers will be judged by the goals they score, and there are few places in world football where the spotlight shines brighter than Real Madrid. The fact that Benzema, 31, has lasted as the focal point of the Madrid attack since arriving in 2009 is a testament to the Frenchman’s ability. However, he has only registered 20+ goals in La Liga during three seasons since arriving at the Bernabeu, one of which being the current 18/19 season in which he’s registered 21 goals at the time of writing. So the question posed is what has been the catalyst for this explosion in goals? The simple answer is that he no longer needs to facilitate Ronaldo and play second fiddle, but what does that actually mean?
When looking at Benzema’s goals a huge shift in the type of goals he has scored has occurred this season, he only managed to register five league goals in 2017/18. However, in 2018/19 he has managed to register eight by way of headed goals (La Liga), making him the second most prolific player in Europe’s top five leagues when it comes to headed goals. This means that 38% of Benzema’s goals have come via headed goals, a high percentage split that is not often associated with Europe’s elite strikers. Most interestingly, 6 of Benzema’s headed goals have come since mid-March. So let’s take a look at why he’s had so much success in this area.
