E he 2021 has started in a bad way for Madrid. Two points have been left in Pamplona in a League in which the Atltico de Madrid does not give truce. And the defense of the Spanish Super Cup lasted only 90 minutes, which meant the defeat against Athletic. Nothing to do with what happened a year ago. Zidane’s team got off to a strong start in 2020: they won the Jeddah Super Cup and of their seven matches in January they only failed to win in that final, the one they won in the penalty shoot-out.
But among the many shadows that haunt Madrid at the beginning of the year there is a light, a hope: Marco Asensio . The Balearic has already recovered his place in the eleventh Zidane after the long run caused by his very serious knee injury in July 2019. With the rhythms that a broken crusader marks, more for starters and constant turns, Asensio has made the return messages he had sent back in December come true.
Before him Athletic the brave, vertical player was once again seen, capable of throwing himself into vertiginous diagonals to put together a left-handed player that is a cannon. In The Rose Garden played at a much higher speed than his peers. He was even able to infect a flat team so that it was able to reach the final stage with the dream of forcing the extension. Three of his lashes made the lions tremble: two were repelled by the wood and the other fell by millimeters into the net of Unai Simn , but on the outside above the crossbar.
Zidane: “Asensio is now much better and I’m happy for him”
For Zidane, Asensio it is a fundamental, vital element. More in a team that is so short of goal. Not only that, but also of finishing capacity. A good version of 11 gives Madrid outside play, threat from outside the area and the ability to filter passes. Many things of value, more for this team that jams easily and does not boast of punch.
Those values are explained by the data. Asensio He is the third Madrid player who has shot more times so far this season: 10. He only has ahead of Benzema (31) and Kroos (14). When the squad is ordered by minutes played, the Spaniard is the tenth, away from the French and the German.
Asensio ran into wood twice: his cannon shots that could change the game
Asensio only adds one goal this season, the one he scored against him Celtic . But up to six times he has run into the posts: twice with the Athletic and one against Borussia Mnchengladbach, Shakhtar, Granada and Elche. They are the same auctions to the posts that Benzema carries. Those six shots at the wood that he has taken in the 22 games this season are more than half of those he adds as a Real Madrid player: 11.
In the European elite, Madrid is the team that adds the most shots to the posts: 20, of them 12 between Benzema and Asensio.
With Asensio back and Benzema Always as the cornerstone of the white attack, Zidane is missing the third piece of the trident that he had in his head for the reconstruction: Hazard . While Asensio has responded to the confidence that Zidane has always had in him, the Belgian has not. And his messages in the field have nothing to do with the Balearic.
The good news you send Asensio They are not only good for Madrid, but also for the national team. For Luis Enrique, what Asensio can contribute to his idea of the game has always been something to take into account. When the Eurocup was postponed one of the reflections that was made in Las Rozas is that he bought plenty of time for Marco to arrive in plenty, because if he had played last summer the risk of putting him on the list of 23 was very high.
With the current line of Asensio his place in the national team, in which the competition with players like Ansu Fati, Adama or Ferran , is a safe bet. Before the injury, Marco played nine of Spain’s ten games after the World Cup in Russia. He only stopped doing it in the friendly against Wales and started six. There is no doubt that for Luis Enrique Asensio’s return is as good as for Zidane.
