The goal comes from far

The pulse that Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi played for years led to a complementary debate for several seasons. Who had a better trident, Madrid with the BBC or Barcelona with the MSN? The respective departures of the Portuguese and Neymar 'dissolved' those tridents and in this League there is a circumstance at least curious. While the Catalans have rebuilt their offensive trident with the arrival of Griezmann, in Madrid the scoring responsibility falls on a somewhat atypical quartet: a striker (Benzema), a defender (Sergio Ramos) and two midfielders (Casemiro and Kroos). Last season the tridents of three teams, Sevilla (40), Celta (39) and Getafe (36) scored more goals than Madrid (35 added Benzema, Bale and Ramos).

Setién has the deadliest trio in LaLiga Santander in the locker room. Messi, Suárez and Griezmann have scored 43 goals so far in the championship: 22 for the Argentine (5 penalty), 13 for the Uruguayan (one from eleven meters) and eight for the French. In Madrid, with Bale unmarked in the League for 10 months and Hazard very far from the records that he accredited in Chelsea, Benzema has found in his rear guard the perfect teammates to distribute the scoring responsibilities of the white team. The Frenchman's 17 goals (3 penalty) are added by the captain's 8 (4 maximum penalties transformed) and the 4 goals that both Casemiro and Kroos have contributed.

“I like a player who comes out of his position and who can do something else from time to time,” said Zidane yesterday at the press conference prior to the match against Getafe. AND the two midfielders have taken this campaign a step forward in the attack, especially the German. This is Toni Kroos' highest scoring season since he arrived in Madrid six years ago. Added to the four goals in the League is the one that scored in Istanbul to Galatasaray at a time of many doubts about the team and the Olympic goal that made Valencia in the semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup. He has also demonstrated his aim with the German team, scoring three goals with the Mannschaft. Nine goals in total, a figure he had not reached since his time at Bayern, where he participated more in the attack.

Casemiro, meanwhile, is two goals away from matching his best scoring season in all competitions. He scored seven goals two seasons ago, at 17-18, and this one, with that of Cornellà-El Prat after Benzema's exquisite heel pass, has already been five. Sergio Ramos is about to equal the eleven he achieved last season with Madrid in all tournaments and the break has given Benzema the sense of smell that he seemed to have lost in the second round. The Frenchman had scored two goals in the eleven games prior to the suspension of the championship (although he scored in the 'farewell' against Betis), a bad streak that will deprive him of fighting with Messi for Pichichi. Yes, Karim has participated in seven other goals for Madrid, giving assists such as the wonder he left against Espanyol to incorporate Casemiro into this atypical white scoring quartet.