Profiling the 5 signings Real Madrid have made so far in this transfer window

#2 Luka Jovic

Real Madrid Unveil New Signing Luka Jovic

While Real Madrid's defensive woes played a significant role in their underperformance last season, this was not exactly unique to 2018/2019, as, in previous years, the club had also shown defensive frailties but always ended up winning major trophies.

The major difference between last season and previous years was that unlike the latter, Los Blancos simply did not score enough goals to blot out the goals conceded and a major reason for this was the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo.

With the Portuguese around, you can be sure to get at least 40 goals or more off his boots, but in his absence Real Madrid were left with players like Bale, Asensio, Benzema, Mariano and the likes who although are more than decent players in their own right, are nowhere near being on the level of Ronaldo.

If the aforementioned players (with the exception of Benzema) had stepped up to the plate, then it could well have been a different story but that failed to happen, with no Real Madrid forward apart from the Frenchman hitting double figures in the league while Bale, Asensio, Mariano, Vasquez, and Vinicius all accounted for the paltry sum of 15 league goals between them.

In total, Real Madrid scored just 63 La Liga goals which was their lowest tally in two decades and it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that this lack of goals was a major reason why they faltered.

To put this in perspective - they conceded 46 goals last season which although poor, was not too far off from the defensive totals they posted in 2017/2018 (44) or their league winning campaign in 2016/2017 (41).

By contrast, they scored 94 La Liga goals in 2017/2018 and the impressive total of 106 en route their league win the season prior.

Goals win matches and any team hopeful of contesting for the major trophies must have at least two players or more who can score 20+ goals every season.

In Luka Jovic, Real Madrid potentially have a ruthless finisher who could bang in the goals to help augment the striking workload on Karim Benzema.

The 21-year-old had his breakthrough campaign last season wherein he scored 27 goals in 48 matches in all competitions (significantly more than any Real Madrid forward bar Benzema) to help his side Frankfurt secure a top-five finish in the Bundesliga while he also finished as the second highest goalscorer in the Europa League as his club made a wonderful run to the semifinals.

Jovic is already a full international with Serbia and his technique and wonderful holdup play means he can be deployed as a lone striker or in a front two along with Karim Benzema.