A signing for the derby

Benzema to the rescue. The draw against Real was caused by a goal from Vinicius, the first by a Madrid striker in six games. The absence of the French has caused an effort to be made in defense to win the games. Now at last The magic of the Frenchman returns, just before the match against Atlético next Sunday in which the white team will play whether or not to be the league championship.

Madrid saw the end of two streaks in goal against Real Sociedad. A brilliant one in his own: Portu finished with 457 minutes without conceding from Courtois. Another disturbing in the rival: Vinicius was the first player of the white attack, except Benzema, to score after 616 minutes. The previous one had been Asensio, on January 30 against Levante. A whole month in which the Zidane team has been supported by goals from Karim and second-line players.

The madridistas have resented the absence of their 9. In the three games that he has lost through injury, the goals were slow to come. Casemiro, a defensive midfielder, scored in Valladolid in the 65th minute; Mendy, a winger, in Bergamo in 86 'and Vinicius against Real in 89'. Two wins by the minimum and a draw to one that lower Madrid's scoring production to 1.68 points per game, the lowest average for whites since the 1999-2000 season.

Benzema is the author of almost a third of Real Madrid's goals this season. 17 of the 57 goals of the team (29.8%) are authored by the French. Its importance, in relative terms, is similar to that of Cristiano Ronaldo in his time in Chamartín. Karim has not taken the step in quantity (he has not approached the 50 goals that the Portuguese managed to secure each season), but he has in terms of participation over the team's total goals.

The problem is that No one has occupied the tile that the Frenchman has left behind when taking the step forward after the departure of Cristiano. You have to get four players together to touch Benzema's 74 goals in these two and a half years. Los Ramos (26), Bale (17), Casemiro (15) and Vinicius (13) add up to 71, according to Opta data. It is paradoxical that the two teammates who complete the podium are not strikers.

This has also been the case for the last two seasons. Casemiro is the second top scorer this season, with six goals (a third of Karim), and Ramos was last, with 13 (Benzema did 27). In 2018-19, the second was Bale, with 11 goals for Karim's 30. The Frenchman, on the other hand, reached half the goals of Cristiano in four of the nine seasons of the now player. bianconero.

The rest of Madrid's attacking players have not been able to gather together the goals of the Frenchman neither this exercise nor the previous one.. Last season Rodrygo (7), Vinicius (5), Asensio (3), Bale (3), Lucas Vázquez (3), Jovic (2), Mariano (1), Brahim (1), Hazard (1) added 26 goals against Benzema's 27. This season between Vinicius (4), Hazard (3), Lucas (2, although he has played mostly as a winger), Asensio (2) and Mariano and Rodrygo (one each) make 13, four less than Karim. Jovic left without scoring a goal this season.

With such problems in front of the rival goal, it is not surprising that everyone expects Benzema like May water. Zidane is optimistic, as well as cautious, about the options of having him in the derby: “That's the idea. Let's see, because he has not yet trained with the team. You are much better of the hassle. We will see and value it “. You have six days ahead of you.