The Clasico has arrived and the best two players in the world won’t be taking part.
These two have had an overwhelming dominance of the Ballon d’Or awards over the past decade and they’ve been so important for their respective clubs. Of course, we’re talking about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
In the case of the former, he’ll miss out due to injury. The latter won’t be there because he left Real Madrid to move to Italy, with the club still crying about his absence and the massive void that has been left. The truth is that the big problem at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu isn’t in the dugout, or even out on the pitch. When it comes to analysing their worrying lack of goals, this is something that those in the directors boxes should have foreseen when Ronaldo packed his bags.
With no significant reinforcements, Real Madrid miss Ronaldo much more than Barcelona will with Messi. This isn’t just a hunch, as there are stats and these don’t lie. This is a low tally for a team that won the past three Champions League titles. It’s not just a matter of finishing, as Ronaldo’s incredible goalscoring ability simply hasn’t been replaced. This has led to the goal drought and the dropping of points.
The Portuguese forward has gone and he is still scoring goals.
This doesn’t mean there isn’t still an element of ‘Messidependence’, which is an absurd term given that every team relies on its best player, even more so when it’s the best in the world. However, Ernesto Valverde’s side have shown that they have other ways of scoring goals, through Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele and Luis Suarez. Even with the Uruguayan going through a moment of bad luck in front of goal, he makes up for that with assists.
With a Clasico, it doesn’t matter how a team has been playing beforehand, as these matches are decided by fine margins, but Real Madrid’s goalscoring problem is much more serious than it seems. Only the Barcelona defence’s shaky form can help them overcome this.