Real Madrid: Grading the forwards from the 2019-2020 season

ST Karim Benzema

Karim Benzema had the best year of any Real Madrid attacker, given he led all players on the team with 2,221 minutes played in La Liga. Some will argue that Benzema shouldn’t have played so many minutes at the expense of Jovic and Mariano, but it’s awfully difficult to bench a player with Benzema’s experience and well-rounded skill-set.

The team’s leader in assists with six and clear leader in goals with 14, Benzema cooled off in the second half of the season. But in the first half of the season, Benzema was La Liga’s best striker. He and Eden Hazard had a tremendous rapport, carving apart defenses with their dribbling and close control.

Benzema can’t be Real’s primary scorer, but he is honestly still a top player.

Grade: B+

RW Rodrygo Goes

Rodrygo Goes deserves more praise for his 2019-2020 season, which was the 19-year-old’s debut campaign after joining Los Blancos for 50 million euros from Santos. It only took him seconds to score his debut goal as a substitute against Osasuna, making him the second-fastest scoring debutant in club history after the legendary Ronaldo No. 9.

A right winger for Real Madrid in most of his games, Rodrygo scored seven goals across all competitions and led all players with at least 700 minutes played by notching an excellent 0.80 goals and assists per 90 minutes (minus penalty goals).

Rodrygo has world-class potential, and he showed it with his magical display against Galatasaray in the Champions League. Zidane decided to take things slowly with Rodrygo, which will prove to be the wise idea in the long run.

Grade: B