Did Real Madrid miss out on La Liga’s new hidden gem at striker?
Real Madrid are in a good moment right now. They’re not necessarily playing the best football in Europe, not at all. Far from it, actually. They usually play well until a certain point, and just try their best to let the game go. They’re scoring enough goals to take the win in most games, even though in some they’ve scored a lot more than enough.
That’s the thing I want to talk about here. If you count Vinicius Junior – a player that still has something left to prove, but has otherwise just been on another level this season, scoring goals, creating plays, doing everything that is expected from him and more – then you have two good goalscorers in the team, along with Karim Benzema. Now, is that really enough for a historically free-scoring team?
What if one of Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior is having an off-night, and the other one is not present? Who can Ancelotti rely on from his bench? Luka Jovic hasn’t been scoring goals, Asensio just has bursts of good performances every once in a blue moon, but is highly unreliable. In basketball terms, who is their sixth man? I can tell you about who could’ve been that player, had Real kept him around.
Hugo Duro has been on fire in La Liga this season
Hugo Duro, as you may remember, was a Real Madrid Castilla player last season. We got him on loan from Getafe, and he was actually playing really well for Castilla. He scored 12 goals in 19 appearances, and allowed Castilla to be a very competitive team last season. The Spaniard also made a bunch of appearances for the first team, back when Real Madrid’s injury crisis was at its absolute peak. He came off the bench against Valladolid, Atalanta in the Champions League and Real Sociedad, helping Real register two wins and a draw.
Real Madrid had to let the Spaniard go at the end of the season, and he joined Valencia on a season-long loan from his parent club Getafe.
This is where it gets interesting. For Valencia, Duro has scored four goals, and is averaging a goal every 142 minutes for the club. That’s not an incredible return, by any means, but it is not bad considering it’s a new club, under a new manager and on new positions as well. What’s more interesting is that he’s only taken 12 shots in total. That’s a 33% conversion rate, which is awesome. This shows that he doesn’t really need to do a lot in the final third to be effective for the club.
Because of that, he’s 5th (FIFTH) in Europe in xG overperformance (he’s overperforming his xG by four times), and is third in La Liga, behind our very own duo of Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior. That’s an incredible return. That’s what Real Madrid need from their bench players. Someone who can just be subbed on and change the game for Real Madrid. Duro came on for just six minutes against Atletico Madrid, and he scored two goals – both of them in stoppage time – and helped Valencia escape with a point. Real don’t really have someone on the bench that can be relied on like that. Maybe Rodrygo is one, but even he’s been making a case for himself to start as a right-winger.
Next. Real Madrid: The one thing Vinicius Junior still needs to prove. dark
If that is the case, would Gareth Bale be able to become a supersub for Real Madrid? If so, what happens next season, when he leaves? Real Madrid need someone to come up clutch for them the way Duro has for Valencia this season, and they’d hope that Rodrygo, Bale or whoever it is, they can do it for them. Or else, Real might regret not keeping Duro around for situations just like this.