Mauro Icardi

How to Put an End to the Scoring Drought

Real Madrid has 1 tie and 3 losses in its past 4 matches with a total of 0 goals. Had Real Madrid ever gone 4 matches without a goal before? Apparently so, but we have to go back 33 years to 1985. Aside from a European Supercup defeat to Atleti everything seemed to run smooth at the start of this year’s campaign. A 2-0 victory over neighbors Getafe, 4-1 over Girona and 4-1 over Leganes. Then we hit a bump against Athletic Bilbao with a 1-1 tie but everyone wrote it off as an acceptable draw against a good team. The following match Real trounces Roma and everything is wonderful again. But it’s not really, and we shouldn’t be surprised. After a 1-0 victory over Espanyol we lose 3-0 to Sevilla, tie 0-0 to Atleti, lose 1-0 to CSKA Moscow and lose 1-0 to a last-gasp goal from Alavés. My, how low have we fallen! This team didn’t suddenly become terrible, it was already in bad shape last year. Now we have last year’s poorly performing team minus the only person on the team that scored goals. Last year, for those who may have forgotten, we lost La Liga quite early. Cristiano was banned for several matches and then started the season in poor form. When Cristiano didn’t score, then nobody scored, and things are still the same up to today. The truth is we were very lucky to win the Champions League last year. After barely escaping Juventus we got lucky with the unfortunate injury to Salah and the goalkeeper mistakes in the final. This team was not playing well but they have gotten used to winning in Champions League play and time and time again they pulled out the win. At this casino online you can bet on this year's Champions League play. This season Bale was supposed to step up in the absence of Ronaldo and to a point he has, but after a brilliant start he has also come up short in recent matches. We have a talented ex-canterano in Mariano, who I believe should start in the place of Benzema, but he’s not enough to turn this around. Real Madrid needs to bring in the goal scoring superstar it didn’t this past summer and it needs to happen in January. In fact, 2-3 attack minded players would not be unthinkable. Real Madrid has always depended on effective strikers. From Raul to the first Ronaldo to Cristiano, there is always an effective hit-man to handle the pressure of goal scoring. It was a mistake not to bring in a world-class striker this summer. The Options
    1. Mauro Icardi – This 25 year old striker currently plays for Milan and chalked up 29 goals in 34 matches last season. His excellent timing, sense of space and finishing would be perfect for Real Madrid. With a price tag of roughly 90 million, he’s an affordable option and could play many years at Real Madrid.
    2. Eden Hazard – Eden is the leading candidate to land in the Bernabeu. At 27 he's still young enough to make his mark in Madrid. Hazard has creativity, speed and good dribbling skills. His goal-scoring percentage is a bit of a downside with only 17 goals in 52 games last year. If he can contribute goals alongside good team play he could be a worthwhile acquisition.
    3. Harry Kane – The player many once accused of being a one-season wonder has won the Golden Boot for the past 2 seasons, being the second fastest to reach 100 Premiere League goals. At just 25 years old Kane is at the perfect age to come in to his prime and be a lasting figure at Real Madrid. The downside to Kane is that, based on the experience of other British players in the past, he may not adjust to life and language in Spain as well as other players might.
Real money casinos would have Hazard as the favorite in the odds. I’m not mentioning Kylian Mbappe as an option just yet since he’s not pushing to leave PSG, making the price tag for this youngster beyond reach, but he’s obviously the best choice in terms of youth and raw talent.
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