Real Madrid 2-0 Osasuna: 5 Talking Points and Tactical Analysis | La Liga 2019/20

#2 Luka Jovic misses his mark, spectacularly

Jovic failed to make the most of his chances

In the summer, Real Madrid splashed the cash to bring Luka Jovic on board. The Serbian turned numerous heads with his performances for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga and represented one of the hottest attacking prospects in Europe.

Unsurprisingly, there was palpable excitement around the Santiago Bernabeu regarding his arrival and a potential partnership with Karim Benzema.

However, the forward has failed to reproduce that in the early part of his Los Blancos career and his wretched run was compounded by another rudderless display against Osasuna.

Throughout the first half, Jovic was anonymous as he rarely contributed to the attack. He was content to prey around the penalty box and didn’t bother involving himself with the build-up play.

And, when a chance came his way in the penalty area, he somehow managed to balloon his shot over the bar, even when making the net ripple seemed easier.

Though he slightly improved after the break, he spurned another chance when eyeball to eyeball with the Osasuna goalkeeper.

After being sent clear by Lucas Vazquez, the Serbian tried to take a touch and finish past Ruben Martinez. However, he took the ball a little wide and that narrowed the angle, meaning that he could only slice his effort wide of the target.

A few minutes later, he made the net bulge, but his goal was correctly chalked out for offside by VAR.

Since the season started, the injuries have been piling up for Real Madrid and they’ve been hoping for their summer recruits to hit the ground running. And, though Jovic might still go on to establish himself as a top-notch striker at the Bernabeu, that transformation certainly didn’t come to fruition on Wednesday.