The situation
It is Valverde’s year. At the blow of a missile, he has knocked down the door of eleven and is already one more in the hall of the undisputed , galloping a right wing where months ago he recognized that he was only a “good Valverde”. But now it is much more. He has not even entered November and already has seven goals, the same as Vinicius; both are the team’s top scorers above Benzema, who has signed six so far. The Falcon has been unleashed when he has dusted off his sniper: on matchday 11 he has already surpassed all records of goals from outside the box from last season. Next challenge, go for Messi. The maximum number of long-distance goals that a player scored in the 2021-22 season was three. A very distributed data: Aspas (Celta), Luis Suárez (Granada), Morales (Levante), Canales (Betis), Asensio (Real Madrid) and Guedes (Valencia). Nobody got to four. Valverde, with an unstoppable right hand against Bono, has achieved it on matchday 11. It all started with his lash against Mallorca on matchday 5. After dribbling past half the team, he released his left foot and put it in the very top corner. A gift was uncovered that has already become routine. The second time was in the Clásico , the third in the Martínez Valero and finally, last Saturday against Sevilla . These last three in this last week… andjust four years after his debut with the white shirt : he did it in the Champions League, against Viktoria Plzen (2-1). The Uruguayan entered the field of play in the second half, replacing Isco in the 54th minute. An Isco he faced last Saturday at the Bernabéu. Since then he has accumulated 164 games (among all competitions), with 13 goals scored and 10 assists. He was the author of the pass that served Vinicius to score the goal that gave Madrid the Fourteenth in Paris. With that record already shattered, he can afford to dream of more. And in that sense, the next port is not a hill, but an eight thousand: Messi . The Argentine was the player who scored the most goals from outside the area in the 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19 seasons , with eight claws, nine and nine , respectively. Therein lies the challenge. The projection supports him: having four goals from outside the area in 11 days, he is estimated to have 13 at the end of the season . But for this, he could not slow down. The dynamic tells that he is going to be really close, that it is something viable. And in his favor he says that he is not a free-kick taker, since Messi added numbers to his figure with set pieces.
Bet
What does seem certain is that Ancelotti will not have to break his coaching card . The Italian said at a press conference that he would do it if Valverde did not score ten goals and, as in this facet you can also count those he has scored from inside the area, the figure grows to seven . Barring unexpected drought, he is expected to reach that figure. Carletto was asked if he wanted to double the bet… but he refused with a laugh: “It’s already too risky!”. His Falcon is on the loose (although on Tuesday, in Leipzig, he could be rested after suffering a heavy blow from Papu Gómez). The numbers reflect that he is going through the best year of his career. The most ambitious; the highest flight of him.