Chained to Jovic

Luka Jovic repeats history. As it happened last season, The Serbian forward has had a good start to the season to claim his claim, but has squandered it for now. The arrival of Carlo Ancelotti made him start from scratch. Clean slate. And the relief on the bench was joined by Benzema's coronavirus infection before joining the preseason. The quarantine delayed the French's set-up by almost two weeks, which arrived just in time on the first day. However, Jovic started Madrid's two summer friendlies without providing a great performance in either of them. Reason enough for Ancelotti to play it in Vitoria, in Madrid's league debut against Alavés, with a Benzema without rhythm before with a Jovic who remains unproven. And the Italian was right: a double for the French in Mendizorroza and only two minutes of play for Jovic.

The Serbian went unnoticed in the first preseason match, against Rangers in Glasgow. A couple of brushstrokes in the form of recoveries that did not go beyond anecdotal. Against Milan he intervened something else in the game but with little incidence, beyond the fact that he was the one who gave the pass to Bale in the play in which the Welshman caused the penalty that later Maignan would stop the own British attacker.

The preseason closed for Jovic having played the first parts of both games in full without even trying a single shot in 92 minutes on the clock.. In both games, he was disconnected from the Whites' game, accustomed to a forward like Benzema who is much more involved in building the team's game. Jovic is a striker who did not accompany so much in midfield, something that in the Klagenfurt match was noticeable above all in the team's transitions, and he changes his position less.

Jovic in the shop window, Mariano refuses to go out

As an alternative is Mariano, who in the match in the second half showed a different playing profile. The Spanish-Dominican, who did not travel to Glasgow due to injury, participated much more in the Madrid game: in the second half he took part in 36 actions (compared to 22 for Jovic in the first half), although he did not attempt any shot. Positionally it also brought another air to the team. He appeared more in the center of the field and frequently exchanged his position with that of Rodrygo, who with the entry of Vinicius after the break was displaced from the left wing by which he had acted in the first half and also against Rangers.

For all this, Madrid aspires to a loan in which Jovic can play regularly to revlorify himself, in the face of a future sale. Last season he was already on loan in January to Eintracht Frankfurt (the club to which Madrid paid 60 million euros for his signing in the summer of 2019), he has a contract until 2025 and Madrid hopes to recover a part of the investment, but With its performance of the last two years, it is difficult for it to have offers enough for the entity to cover the costs. Mariano is also, one more season, on the starting ramp, but the player is still reluctant to leave the white club, with which he still has two more years of contract, until June 2023.