Real Madrid decided not to sign a new striker in the summer transfer window. Álvaro Morata and Mariano Díaz left, but the club thought that the role was covered with Borja Mayoral or Lucas Vázquez. Some games later, there was a big controversy because the team is struggling to score and all the people are pointing out the strikers, obviously.
Zinedine Zidane said this summer that he was confident in Borja Mayoral’s skills. The homegrown player should be able to cover the role when Cristiano Ronaldo or Benzema are not available. However, after a few months of competition, Mayoral hasn’t had many chances and his always on the bench or out of the list.
Mayoral has only participated in 6 games in La Liga, playing 108 minutes. He only started once, against Real Sociedad, and he did a great job, scoring the first goal of the game. He also started against Fuenlabrada in Copa del Rey. In the Champions League, he’s had 25 minutes divided in two games. These are very poor numbers.
His situation is more surprising if we take in consideration the problems with the goal. Cristiano Ronaldo or Benzema have only scored once in La Liga and Gareth Bale is having many problems with the injuries. However, Mayoral is not a solution for Zinedine Zidane, who prefers to introduce Asensio or Lucas Vázquez as wingers rather than giving an opportunity to the Spaniard.
Mayoral is always called by the U-21 Spanish team. However, if we have a look at his numbers, he’s never been a great scorer. His best season was in 2015/16, when he scored 15 goals with Castilla in the Spanish third division. Last season he only scored two goals in Bundesliga, where he played on loan for Wolfsburg.
Morata said recently that the competition at Real Madrid is very high and enjoying minutes is very complicated. Borja Mayoral can tell, because despite having good performances, the Spaniard is not having minutes. Is this the story of a failure?
