Real Madrid: How has Borja Mayoral performed so far?
When Borja Mayoral was appointed the secondary striker with the selling of Alvaro Morata and Mariano Diaz, people were kind of shocked. For good reason, but after a couple performances, what has Borja shown us?
It’s been three small sample sizes so far, but Mayoral is off to a good start in his first real campaign as a first-teamer with Los Blancos. The 20-year-old Spanish native isn’t a wonder kid, but he has been constantly praised while working through the youth systems.
Technically, his play so far has been really similar to an inform Karim Benzema. His movement has been really good and his passing, as well as link-ups, are solid. At 20 years old, Mayoral has a good soccer IQ.
In his three RM appearances so far this season he has displayed the latter. Using his body and size to attract defenders and creating passing and running lanes for himself as well as his teammates in the process. This was particularly shown in one attack with Marco Asensio and Isco against Real Sociedad. Mayoral flowed into their rhythms, ran wide, found space and helped create a really beautiful chance.
The video above does a good job highlighting Mayoral’s performance against Sociedad. One sequence I’d like to point out is at 2:05.
Borja wins the ball at midfield and goes on a beautiful run. He creates a tremendous amount of space in the box and has a clear view of goal, and practically sinks it. The goal was accredited as an own goal, but the whole sequence was awesome by Borja.
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The chance I was talking about before with Isco and Asensio can be seen at 3:38 in the above video as well.
Mayoral has played well so far. His link up with the midfield has been superb, he has helped create and been on the end of quite a few chances, and basically has two goals for the club in 99 minutes played.
He isn’t Mbappe or Dembele, he is Mayoral. He is an above average talent and at 20-years-old has broken into a Real Madrid side whether most people like it or not.
The kid has talent and deserves the right to play this season. He is only going to get better. Maybe he isn’t the long-term replacement for Karim, but he certainly will be a great rational player.
Next: Three takeaways from Real Madrid’s loss to Real Betis