Real Madrid had one of the best defenses in Europe’s top five leagues last season, but they still have some work to do before their attack measures up.
Before the 2019-2020 La Liga campaign was suspended due to a pandemic, Real Madrid had by far the best defense in the league. Even Atletico Madrid, with Diego Simeone’s incessant clogging of the middle of the field and nine-man defending, couldn’t allow fewer goals than Los Blancos’ finely-tuned defense.
However, Real struggled to find the back of the net. Take their biggest rivalry games as an example. They did not allow a single goal against Atletico Madrid or FC Barcelona in five games against both sides, yet they only scored three goals in regulation in those five games.
As a whole, Los Blancos scored 49 goals. While that was good for second in the league, they only scored a handful of more goals than Villarreal and Real Sociedad. And they scored 14 fewer goals than Barcelona, who had their own major issues in the attack with only Lionel Messi consistently producing.
In late October and early November, Los Blancos looked unstoppable offensively. They put six past Galatasaray at home, blew out lowly Leganes 5-0, and took down La Real 3-1. They even scored four goals on Granada in October in the midst of some dismal attacking displays, including a narrow 1-0 victory at Galatasaray.
But in the second half of the season after Eden Hazard went down with injury, Los Blancos struggled mightily in front of goal, with Karim Benzema suffering a particularly frustrating dry spell. Outside of him, nobody could consistently find the back of the net, as center back Sergio Ramos was second on the team with five goals in La Liga.
Real Madrid have a title-worthy defense. There is no question about that. In Ferland Mendy on the left and Dani Carvajal on the right, Real’s fullbacks set a benchmark defensively. Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos remain the best center back pairing in world football. Thibaut Courtois was La Liga’s best keeper in 2019-2020 despite a poor start to the campaign. And Casemiro is clearly the world’s best defensive midfielder.
However, Real’s attack is far from title-worthy. Hazard, Isco, Vinicius Junior, Toni Kroos, and Luka Modric are all capable of creating chances. But who is there to finish them besides Benzema? Hazard only scored one goal in La Liga last season and was more of a creator. Luka Jovic didn’t get much game time. Rodrygo is still growing. Gareth Bale is a nonfactor at this stage of his career.
Los Blancos will target the best attackers in the world this summer, but few of the world-class options seem realistic. Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland are long-term targets who will almost certainly not be sold this summer. Sadio Mane seems like a pipe dream. Jadon Sancho isn’t a prime scorer, but his 14 goals appear to be in Manchester United’s future.
Young player development and finding the right marquee transfer will be crucial to Real Madrid in the summer of 2020. Because if they want to win more major trophies, they need to develop a title-worthy attack. What they have right now is missing a vital piece.