A total of 258 goals have been scored in Spain’s top flight this season as of Matchday 10, 16 more than at the same stage last season.
LaLiga Santander is known as being one of the leagues with the highest level of quality in the world, as evidenced by the fact that Real Madrid captain Karim Benzema just picked up the 15th Ballon d’Or for a LaLiga Santander player so far this century, collecting the prize in Paris on Monday. It is also a very distinct league because of its attractive style of play and entertaining matches. This season, in addition to all this, LaLiga Santander is also producing even more goals than in recent years, with the numbers highlighting this.
Across the first 10 matchdays of this current LaLiga Santander campaign, a total of 258 goals have been scored. That works out as an average of 2.58 goals per game from the 100 fixtures played so far. Not since six years ago has there been a figure as high or higher to start off the league campaign. That was in 2017/18, when 274 goals hit the back of the net across the first 10 rounds.
In Matchday 5 alone, there were as many as 35 goals, making it one of the rounds of action with the most goals in all of Europe, at an average of 3.5 per game. This first quarter of LaLiga Santander has produced some particularly memorable matches, such as Girona FC’s 5-3 home loss to Real Sociedad, or Valencia CF’s 5-1 win over Getafe CF. That’s in addition to other frenetic matches such as Athletic Club 3-2 Rayo Vallecano, RCD Espanyol 2-3 Sevilla FC or the recent ElClasico, when the fans tuning in around the world witnessed four goals as Real Madrid won 3-1 against FC Barcelona.
The high scoring numbers have a lot to do with the top-quality strikers in LaLiga Santander. In addition to the aforementioned Benzema, who has already scored five goals this term, the arrival at FC Barcelona of Robert Lewandowski, the division’s current top scorer with 11 goals and the winner of the latest Gerd Müller Award for the best goalscorer of the year, has meant a leap in quality in terms of goalscoring ability. Behind him, RCD Espanyol’s Joselu and Real Betis’ Borja Iglesias boast seven goals each, while Iago Aspas, with six goals, continues to be RC Celta’s attacking talisman.
Yet there are also many other players making a name for themselves as goalscorers this year. Brais Méndez (Real Sociedad), Álvaro Morata (Atlético de Madrid) and Vini Jr (Real Madrid) all have five goals each. Fede Valverde is another player scoring goals this year and he deserves a special mention, as Real Madrid’s Uruguayan midfielder is exploiting his full attacking potential this season after his coach Carlo Ancelotti admitted at a press conference that this was one of his coaching instructions for this season. The Italian coach said: “I told Valverde that if he didn’t score at least 10 goals in a season then I should rip up my coaching license.” So far, he has scored five goals in 10 league games, so everything points to Ancelotti saving his job.
Looking at even more players who are taking on the challenge of carrying the scoring burden for their teams, contributing to increasing the overall goal tally and enhancing the spectacle, we can point to Sergio León at Real Valladolid, Iñaki Williams at Athletic Club or Vedat Muriqi at RCD Mallorca, as they’ve each already scored four goals this season.
It’s even more remarkable that so many goals are being scored when considering the high level the goalkeepers are demonstrating in LaLiga Santander at this same time. Marc-André ter Stegen recently broke his personal record and went 636 minutes without conceding a goal, while injuries to Jan Oblak and Thibaut Courtois have brought about great performances from their replacements Ivo Grbić and Andriy Lunin, the young backup goalkeepers of Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid. There are also other goalkeepers making great saves every week, such as Athletic Club’s Unai Simón, the current leader of the Zamora Trophy standings, Cadíz CF’s Jeremías Ledesma, who is pushing for an Argentina World Cup call-up, and Valencia CF’s Giorgi Mamardashvili¸ who continues to improve following his breakout season last year. For so many goals to be going past this excellent group of keepers is especially impressive.
