Without doubt, the driving force behind Real Madrid’s title charge has been Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr.
As always, Los Blancos have been aided by significant work from their ageing but impressive midfield trio of Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Carlos Casemiro. Eder Militao and David Alaba have done a remarkable job of making the Santiago Bernabeu forget about Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane so quickly.
However, the two in attack stand out as the stars of this Real Madrid. Perhaps only Thibaut Courtois in goal can lay a glove on them in terms of performance levels. Something which seems ever more obvious whenever either is absent from the side.
This has led to some wondering if the rest of Europe can provide a better pair in the world at the moment. As SPORT point out, no two players in the big five European leagues have directly assisted goals for each other more than Vinicius and Benzema. Their seven assists for each other are evidence of an electric chemistry on the grass.
Compared with the competition, the top five in this metric are somewhat surprising – Bayer Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick and Florian Wirtz also have seven. Behind them lie Giovanni Simeone and Davide Faraoni from Hellas Verona, Domenico Berardi and Giacomo Raspadori of Sassuolo and Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller – all with six.
This metric is just the tip of the statistical iceberg in terms of their contribution to Real Madrid. Of the 52 Real Madrid goals in La Liga, 32 (61.5%) have come from the dynamic duo. Mesmerising to watch, they are comfortably the most effective force in Spain too.
