Real Madrid: Could Mariano Diaz shine this year?

Mariano Diaz is willing to prove that he belongs in Real Madrid, so could he have a breakout season in 2019-2020?

The “fairy-tale” is quite simple: Zinedine Zidane was in charge of Real Madrid and felt that Mariano Diaz was surplus to requirements. The player went to Lyon for a year before Julen Lopetegui came in and said he wanted to bring the player back. Another year went by. Zidane came in and made it clear that the striker is not in his plans. But this time, Mariano Diaz stayed.

The Dominican/Spanish striker was initially going to leave in the summer of 2016 while Real Madrid had the devastating strike-force of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema. Even with those three superstars clicking, the striker managed to get a few games under his belt before moving away from Spain the following summer.

Mariano Diaz is a stubborn person and extremely confident in his abilities. He has never made it a secret that his mission is to shine and make a name for himself at Real Madrid. While Lopetegui trusted him, it was hard to see him do anything of note with the injuries that he suffered throughout the past season. He knows that, and it seems clear that Mariano didn’t want to leave after one of Real Madrid’s worst seasons – and personally one of his worst as well.

At 26, Mariano is still relatively young and has time to turn his fortunes around at the club. Before he left, he made a total of nine appearances for the first-team and scored once before being moved on to Lyon, where he scored 18 goals and registered four assists in 34 matches. Big things were expected upon his return to the Spanish capital, but four goals in 18 matches (he only started three of them) was not what he was expecting.

He was expected to be sold during the past transfer window, as rumors circulated regarding interest from various clubs such as AS Roma, Real Betis and Marseille. But with nothing being finalized, the striker has opted to stay at the club and fight for his chance, even though the arrival of Luka Jovic makes things a lot more difficult for him.

Personally, I’m struggling to see how Mariano will be able to make a significant impact this year for the simple reason that no matter what happens, I can’t see how Zidane will play him much. No matter what formation the manager chooses, Jovic will be on the bench to come on for Benzema, unless he decides to go for a 4-4-2 where Benzema and Jovic both start. In that case, we will probably see what we saw the last time where Jovic went off and Zidane automatically changed the formation to his more frequent 4-3-3.

Therefore, the only times that I can see Mariano getting a chance is in the early stages of the Copa del Rey where Jovic will presumably start and Mariano will be on the bench as Benzema is given some rest – or if Real Madrid have already qualified top of their group in the UEFA Champions League before the group stages are over. That is two extra games at the most, which is not anything to be excited about for Mariano.

Of course, the most sensible solution is if there are injuries to any of the strikers. Benzema is the starter under Zidane and if Jovic is injured (which has now happened twice since the summer), then Mariano is expected to be on the bench and prepared in case anything does happen and he is called on to make a difference. Again, this is not an ideal solution, but the season is long and the striker is hoping for a change in luck so that he can prove he deserves to be in this team.

Unfortunately, the best-case scenario that I can see is Mariano Diaz stays at the club until the end of this season before being sent somewhere on a permanent transfer. He has not yet been able to show that he’s good enough for the team, and I don’t see him doing that this season even with his extreme self-confidence and stubbornness in mind.