Throughout its history, Real Madrid has always had 11m players. For the past decade, Cristiano Ronaldo has been the main performer. When the Portuguese superstar left, Sergio Ramos took on and maintained a high success rate.
When Ramos moved to Paris St Germain, it was Karim Benzema's turn to shoulder the responsibility of taking the penalty for Real. The French striker also had a very high success rate, most notably the panenka against Man City in the Champions League.
This season, when Benzema joined the Saudi Pro League, the question was, who would replace him. Many eyes are on Rodrygo, who has successfully completed 100% of his 11m shots last season (3 times).
However, the pressure caused the Brazilian striker to miss his 11m kick in the match against Celta Vigo in round 3 of La Liga, when the score was 0-0. Fortunately, Jude Bellingham still managed to score the only goal in the 81st minute to correct his teammate's mistake.
So, who is the most reliable player on Real's 11m mark this season?
Modric and Kroos' experience
With class and experience, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos have confidence and composure on the 11m mark. However, the problem is that neither of them have played regularly this season.
In the last 2 seasons, Modric has only taken 4 penalties (excluding penalty shootouts) and successfully won 3 times. For his part, Kroos also did not have the fate to wear the 11m mark for Real or even the former Bayern Munich.
Young players
Bellingham, why not the English player in charge of playing 11m? Not only has Bellingham's scoring form impressive, he also has a special personality when taking penalty kicks. The problem is that the former Dortmund player does not have much experience. At the age of 20, Bellingham has only had two shots in 11m throughout his career.
Similar to Bellingham, Vinicius is also a great talent but still inexperienced. In the pre-season friendly against Barcelona in the US, the Brazilian player missed a penalty.
David Alaba and Federico Valverde
David Alaba and Valverde are other attractive proposals. The Austrian is an expert in free kicks, so theoretically he will play well in the 11m. However, in reality, his success rate is not high: 68% (8/12).
The other choice is Valverde. However, the Uruguayan has not taken any penalty kicks since he was a young player.
Joselu - 11m play expert
If Rodrigo is ruled out, Joselu will be Los Blancos' most prestigious 11m player. The Spaniard made no mistakes last season for Espanyol. Joselu successfully executed 5/6 penalty kicks in just 1 year.
Of course, the pressure at a big club like Real will be completely different. But Joselu showed that this did not affect him. Last season, Joselu's 5 successful 11m shots all helped the home team equalize or shorten the score.
Since the 2014-2015 season, Joselu has successfully completed 15/21 times on the 11m mark, a rate of 71.4%. In fact, that number is not too high, but the problem is Joselu has accumulated experience over the years.
Ancelotti's decision
With this scenario, it seems that Joselu will be trusted by Ancelotti for his experience and reliability.
Ancelotti let the players freely decide on the right to play 11m based on emotions. However, Joselu was the first choice, as the Italian strategist shared after the match against Osasuna.
"Every match, the players in the 11m are different because they don't always have the same squad. Today, Joselu is the one to do it. I don't know if the players talked on the pitch to give Rodrygo a chance, but the one who fired was Joselu," Ancelotti said.
