Real Madrid will need more from Hazard, Jovic if they want to compete for all three titles

Real Madrid are one game away from wrapping up the first half of the 2019-2020 La Liga Santander season and assuming they beat Getafe away from the Bernabeu on January 4th —it will surely be a tough game— they will be on pace to score 80 points, which will almost certainly not be enough to win the title this year. The last time 80 points clinched a Liga title was in 2006-2007 when Fabio Capello’s Real Madrid became the champions in the very last week of the season.

Benzema is the team’s leading scorer so far this Liga season with 12 goals scored and Ramos is the next one on the list with three, two of them coming from the penalty spot. Bale, Kroos, Modric, Rodrygo and Valverde all have contributed with two goals each.

However, Luka Jovic and Eden Hazard joined Real Madrid this past summer and were expected to make a bigger impact than the one goal they’ve scored so far. They can be forgiven, though, as they’ve missed many games. Hazard has been injured for at least two months combined while Jovic hasn’t received the minutes he was projected to play when the club spent €60 million to sign him away from Eintracht Frankfurt.

Still, Real Madrid will need more from them both if they want to win La Liga this season. Barcelona have been a bit sub par this season but Los Blancos can’t expect that trend to continue and Lionel Messi will eventually hit his stride and single-handedly win games for Barça.

Furthermore, coach Zinedine Zidane will soon have to use the depth of his roster. The Copa del Rey is about to kick off for Real Madrid while the Champions League’s Round of 16 against Manchester City will be tough enough to force Zidane to rest some of his starters in La Liga.

Karim Benzema has been brilliant so far this season but he will soon need someone to share the burden with him for Madrid to be successful. Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic and Gareth Bale —if he keeps getting consistent minutes— will all need to take a step forward and prove that they can be make a bigger impact during the second half of the season.