Mariano runs out of time

Real Madrid's second striker is … the change of drawing. Not even the absence of Benzema against Atalanta opened the doors of ownership for Mariano. Zidane chose to include Isco and modify his scheme to counteract the offensive drawing of Gasperini's men instead of starting the Spanish-Dominican forward. Although Vinicius and Isco are the players who have played the most games as substitutes (14 and 13 respectively), Mariano is the player (except Chust and Jovic and Mayoral, who are no longer on the squad) that less minutes he disputes when he leaves the bench: 12.11 minutes per game in his nine appearances as a substitute. The attacker rushes his options in tonight's game against Real Sociedad. For the next game, Sunday's derby (16:15) against Atlético, Benzema will already be there.

There was a moment of the season in which Mariano seemed to regain Zidane's confidence. It coincided with Benzema's first injury, at the Mestalla. To the surprise of locals and strangers, the French coach gave entry to Mariano before Jovic. They were the first minutes of the season for the youth squad, who had missed the first month and a half of the season due to a sore throat operation. Benzema's dismissal, together with Jovic's extraordinary performance with Serbia in the national team break that followed the Valencia match, had to test whether that decision was punctual or was due to a change in status up front. The positive for the Balkan's coronavirus left Mariano free, who started in the three games without the French and scored at 105 seconds of the first game, against Villarreal.

The subsequent competition between the two is reduced to a spark. Zidane exhausted the changes against Celta in the first match of 2021, trading Benzema for Mariano in discount. The Serbian had to settle for watching his last game as a white player (for now) from the bench. Without just sitting down at the table, Mariano was able to win the pulse.

Until Benzema's injury, he had had minutes in six of the previous eight games, including the Copa in Alcoyano field. There he started and played until in minute 67 Zidane rescued the plan and put Benzema in. In his exits from the bench, Mariano never had more than a quarter of an hour until Bergamo, where it came out in 57 '. But the decision that truly denotes his situation was the change of scheme to give entry to Isco. With the man from Malaga and Vinicius, the two players with the most substitutions on the pitch, Mariano was the only outfield player from the first team who stayed on the bench with the five Castilla players.. Almost completed the hour, Zidane removed the Brazilian to give minutes to Mariano. Today, against Real, it is unknown if the French will bet on him.