La Liga 2019/20 finished this weekend with Real Madrid confirming their title. After seeing Barcelona winning it in the past two seasons, Real topped La Liga table once again, finishing 5 points above their rivals.
Real Madrid just needed a victory over Villarreal to achieve its 34th league title. They did it with Benzema being again the hero, scoring two goals, to finish the season with 21 goals.
Los Blancos were also the best defense in the league, with 25 goals conceded. Barcelona finished as top goal scorers with 85 goals, but they conceded 38, more than Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, and Getafe.
Barcelona gave a helping hand to their rivals in their title pursuit, as they lost to Osasuna in Camp Nou 1×2. It was their first home loss this season.
The title was achieved with 1 match still left to play, where Real Madrid drew 2×2 with Leganes, confirming the relegation of the team coached by Javier Aguirre.
Barcelona won to Alaves 0x5, but it was only a consolation, which helped to consolidate Messi as top scorer of the competition (25 goals). Messi was also the player with more assists in La Liga (21).
Who were the key players for Real Madrid this season?
Throwback to last season, when Real Madrid finished La Liga in 3rd place, crashed out of Copa del Rey for a misdemeanor and were humbled by Ajax in the Champions League.
Lopetegui, who is now at Sevilla, was replaced by Santiago Solari. With Los Blancos season’s practically lost, Zinedine Zidane arrived once again to steer the boat into shore.
The French manager conquered 3 Champions League titles and one La Liga between 2015 and 2018, but on that Summer he had decided to leave.
During that period Cristiano Ronaldo, the club’s all-time top scorer, moved to Juventus and Real Madrid was left with a gap to fill. Less than a season later, Zidane was back, seeing his previous house bursting into flames.
Evaluating Real Madrid Summer signings
Real Madrid invested this Summer in some important signings. Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic, Eder Militao, and Ferland Mendy all arrived to offer more options into Zinedine’s squad.
Hits
However, we can say that only Ferland Mendy lived to the expectations. Besides his injury early during the season, the left-back showed his talent once he had the opportunity. 19 caps, 1 goal, 2 assists, and a pass accuracy of 88% confirms that Marcelo might see his time on the pitch reduced next season.
Meanwhile, Eden Hazard arrived after 6 seasons in Stamford Bridge for Chelsea. The now 29-year-old has already assumed it wasn’t his dream debut season, with several injuries and only 1 goal and 6 assists in 16 games.
The Belgian still performs high on the dribbles per match category (3). Only Leo Messi (5.5) and Betis Nabil Fekir (3.1) rank higher (even though both players had more 10 caps for their respective clubs).
Misses
For the striker position, Real Madrid had signed Eintracht Frankfurt’s Luka Jovic. The Serbian had scored 17 goals in 32 Bundesliga games the season before, so the expectations were high.
However, he only managed to hit the net twice in La Liga and he had some off the pitch behavior that demonstrated he was not fully committed to his duties. In fact, he only played 4 full games, coming on other 11 times as a sub.
In those games, he averaged 0.8 shots on target and 0.3 successful dribbles. For a team like Real Madrid, he surely was supposed to do more. There are already rumors that he might be on his way out.
Finally, we have Eder Militao, who arrived from Porto for a fee of €50M. He played 15 matches but didn’t show enough confidence to be a regular starter. Still, his defensive stats are decent: 2.7 clearances, 1.7 tackles, and 1.3 interceptions.
The 22 years old center back has room to grow and maybe Zidane can take advantage of the offensive features highlighted when he was playing for Liga NOS table champions, FC Porto.
Be the first to comment