Rodrygo's "Deja vu" story
After the match against Girona in La Liga on February 23, Rodrygo marked the 7th consecutive match without scoring for Real Madrid. That is contrary to what he has at Kylian Mbappe, the French striker scored 14 goals in the first 2 months of 2025. However, there has been no criticism towards the Brazilian. Simply because, at the Bernabeu, they understand how good Rodrygo is and the fact that he has not scored recently is a repeat of the story he went through in 2023.
It was a terrible period. After scoring with his first shot of the season on August 12, at Athletic Bilbao's San Mames, Rodrygo tried 41 more times for 2 and a half months, until October 22, when he scored again in Braga ( portugal). If we add up the value of all the chances he had up to that point, Rodrygo had wasted 3.63 expected goals (xG), according to StatsBomb. At the time, he was the worst striker in Europe.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti, who has experience in every battle, knows that everything will definitely change. We have to be patient, because these are special moments that the strikers have to go through. There were times when you scored every time you touched the ball, and there were times when you shot a lot but it didn't work. It will pass, as it has happened to all the other strikers, Carlo said at the time.
What Ancelotti said was a warning from old football, and he was right. That has also been proven by advanced toanistics, neur physics and brain wave knowledge: "When in good form, Rodrygo scores from the center, from the left or right". Rodrygo has since scored in a row. Ancelotti felt - as people in football felt - that goals never come alone.
This phenomenon is always considered a reality, even in other sports such as basketball, where it is called a "hot hand": After scoring many consecutive points, players will enter the "zone" (zone) and feel that they will continue to throw better. The players believe in that, as do coaches, who call the inspirational moment break time-out. However, for decades, cognitive psychology has continued to believe that this is just an illusion.
Studies
In 1985, Thomas Gilovich, Robert Vallone and Amos Tversky - 3 psychologists who are dedicated to exploring cognitive barriers - suspected that lucky hands are nothing other than a form of self-deception and began to expose it. They checked the data to see if a player was more likely to score after a series of successful shots than under normal conditions. They concluded that it was just luck, and that athletes believed in the chain, or in the zone, or "good form" as Ancelotti said was superstition.
Over the next 30 years, researchers around the world designed similar studies to reinforce the reputation of the so-called lucky-handed excuse, which has become an extremely popular concept. Just like that, until 2015, when two economists, Joshua Miller and Adam Sanjurjo, reviewed data from the 1985 official research and realized that Gilovich's team had misunderstood. Their records really show the opposite: Real goalscoring is more likely to happen after a series of successful shots. The lucky hand was right there, in the data.
Studies on neurology have also found signs of motivation in the brain. They are high alpha brainwaves, explains Jose Adan, head of neurology training at the RX2 Sports and Health Center in Madrid, Spain. "High alpha brain waves are a great way to distinguish great people from good athletes. It comes at a time of peak performance," said Jose Adan.
"People who are not outstanding at important times have a higher alpha frequency than during their activities. With a higher alpha, you have the ability to transfer attention very quickly, with external attention focus; both alert and calm. It's a state where things go smoothly. The brain always does what it has to do without obstacles, without thinking, worrying or expecting, which wastes a lot of energy".
For Rodrygo - and forwards or any other player, bad streaks often shift their focus to the inside, to thoughts about failure, consequences, and their impact. That could cause instability. You consume twice as much energy. When the brain faces more obstacles, it will affect performance, said Jose Adan. Mental health becomes stagnant and performance is affected.
Rodrygo - still not scoring is still excellent
For Rodrygo in 2023, after a long run of 2 and a half months of poor finishing, when he finally scored, thanks to an easier chance than all previous times: England, with 0.44 xG. Before that, he wasted two very delicious goals, one with 0.40 xG against Real Sociedad and one with 0.35 xG against Union Berlin. However, the goal in Braga was still not enough to put him in the "zone". He missed his next seven shots and continued to miss them until he found another relatively easy chance at 0.42. That was when everything changed: With the next 14 shots, Rodrygo scored 5 goals, and the best chance he missed was just 0.18 xG.
As of October 31, 2023, there were 361 players in Europe who had been involved in more goals than Rodrygo, according to sports analytics company Opta. However, from November 1 to mid-December, no one has been involved in more goals than him.
Returning to reality, a similar story is happening and of course, everyone is still waiting, still thinking Rodrygo is in a "rest" before finding an explosive moment at the decisive moment. Real Madrid will need that, as Rodrygo showed in the Champions League, to make important contributions to bringing Real Madrid to the championship as in recent years. Moreover, although he did not score, the assessment showed that the 24-year-old player still performed very impressively. As Jude Bellingham said, Rodrygo is Real Madrids most talented player. He did many miracles with the ball, and if I tried to copy him, he would get an ankle block, Bellingham said.
Legend Thierry Henry - Bellingham interviewer said: "People rarely mention Rodrygo. But what he has contributed, his playing skills, what makes the team really impressive." These are the reflections and thoughts of many fans and experts, that Rodrygo is an unknown star.
