Chipping in with goal contributions
On the subject of getting the ball into dangerous areas, it’s no surprise, then, that Ferland Mendy is among the least-involved player in goals when compared to the minutes he plays for Real Madrid. This season, Mendy has not registered a single goal contribution. And in 2019-2020, he had only one goal and two assists in La Liga, tying Marcelo, who played more than 500 fewer minutes than the French left back.
This season, Raphael Varane is the only player with more minutes played than Mendy who still has not scored or assisted for Real Madrid. Considering the output Real are used to receiving from the left back position over the years, this is concerning.
Mendy scored a great individual goal against Granada at the end of the 2019-2020 campaign, and he had the winning assist for Karim Benzema in El Derbi that same season. But by and large, those are the only real highlights we see from Mendy in the final third when it comes to goal involvement. Mendy has just one goal-creating action in 2020-2021.
It’s something Mendy needs to improve on, because Real Madrid will have other options at left back emerging who can offer more attacking production at the position. Mendy is important to Real and makes up for his lack of attacking involvement with his elite defending, but if he doesn’t get better offensively, he could lose starts in the future to a better left back alternative than the declining Marcelo.