SOS to Benzema and Joselu

Joselu Mato (Stuttgart, 1990) has scored 12 of the 19 goals for Alavés, the least productive team in the League. He has also assisted in two others. No other footballer is as influential in a team as he is. AND his professional history began at the Bernabéu almost twelve years ago, when Mourinho made him debut with Madrid in the last match of his that season against Almería. He played only six minutes and scored the last goal of an 8-1 pass from Cristiano.

His career, then, did not take off so vertically. The son of Galician emigrants, he signed for Celta at the age of 11 and was there until he was 19, when Madrid incorporated him into their quarry. Four years before Atlético was around him, but he did not make up his mind. Contemporary in Castile Morata, Jesé, Sarabia, Carvajal, Nacho Fernández, Lucas Vázquez or his still partner Pacheco, scored 40 goals in two years and was promoted to Second Division with the subsidiary. There was no place for him in the first team and he returned to Germany. He played for Hoffenheim, Eintracht and Hannover. He later tried in England (Stoke and Newcastle), with a transfer to Deportivo in between. And in 2019 he arrived at Alavés, the scene of his confirmation. He had not scored 12 goals (third scorer in the League, after Benzema and De Tomás) since his time with Castilla.

Its importance is such that the club did not want to transfer him to Sevilla last summer for less than his clause (15 million) despite the fact that the contract ends in June this year. Now it is the great air force of the championship. Nobody wins more disputes from above than him. He is the best target man and an excellent penalty taker (he has scored six without fail), but he has had little support.

No Mendilibar effect yet

The one he got last Sunday against Valencia was the first victory for the club from Vitoria in eleven games and almost three months, and the first also since José Luis Mendilibar took charge of the team, Calleja’s replacement and who was able to keep Eibar in the First Division for five seasons when his budget pointed to the opposite. When he took it he was sixteenth and now he is eighteenth, four points from salvation and with some records that explain it well: it is the team that scores the least and the second that fits the most. Hence the four winter signings, received as lifeboats.

As well Madrid is immersed in a mini-crisis, with only one victory and one goal in the last four games. The losing streak coincides with the absence of Benzema, who reappeared in Paris far from his best form. “He will help us fix the problem,” Ancelotti said yesterday during the pre-match press conference. The Frenchman has been constant in his goalscoring vocation, but he has been without company for a while. Vinicius, his better half so far, has eight games without scoring, six with Madrid and two with Brazil.

worse with modest

All the records have been much less in the white team since the beginning of the season. He scored 21 goals in his first six games and 27 in the next 18. His average number of shots on goal in the last four games has dropped by a third from his average. And the visit of Alavés reminds us that He has won everything possible against the teams in European positions, but he has left points against Villarreal, Osasuna, Espanyol, Elche, Getafe, Cádiz and Levante, the last five, from the second half of the table, and the last two, in decline. So today, against a team with only 43% possession, he is wary. More so if the one who trains him is Mendilibar, whose teams have historically registered the highest pressure index in the championship thanks to a very advanced defense.

The team from Vitoria loses one of its pillars for the matchthe central Laguardia, suspended due to accumulation of reprimands. The American Miazga will relieve him. The forecast is that, as against Valencia, Mendilibar will give up his usual 4-4-2, repeat with the Pina-Loum-Escalante trivote and Joselu will be the only striker.

In Madrid too many novelties are not expected either. The open wound in Paris is not big enough to expect a revolution. Ancelotti continues to believe that the distance between his starting eleven and his bench is abysmal. It is presumed, yes, the entry of Valverde, who was only left without playing twice of all in which he was available, although he has been a substitute for half the season. Modric is the first candidate to leave him his place. It will be a good opportunity to shoot him, because his presence against PSG, due to Casemiro’s loss, is considered safe.