Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez? Which Clasico star has shone brightest in 2016-17?
best attacking stars and Saturday's LaLiga clash
is no exception.
Gareth Bale is out injured for Real Madrid, but
Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Alvaro
Morata should all feature in the game.
Barcelona, meanwhile, have their vaunted
attacking trio Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis
Suarez.
But which Clasico star has performed best so far
in 2016-17 and who is struggling by
comparison?
Ahead of the big game, we look at attacking
statistics across all competitions of the four top
forwards in each side, courtesy of Opta.
MESSI TOPS THE GOALSCORING CHARTS
Messi is comfortably the highest-scoring player
from the two teams, outscoring Ronaldo by
seven despite having played just one more
match.
19 – Lionel Messi (16 appearances)
12 – Cristiano Ronaldo (15 apps)
11 – Luis Suarez (18 apps)
8 – Alvaro Morata (17 apps)
7 – Gareth Bale (16 apps)
6 – Karim Benzema (16 apps)
6 – Neymar (16 apps)
0 – Paco Alcacer (8 apps)
MORATA MORE PROLIFIC THAN RONALDO
The minutes-per-goal statistics make interesting
reading, with Morata coming out favourably
compared to his Madrid team-mates, including
Ronaldo.
Neymar has performed the worst in front of goal,
aside from team-mate Paco Alcacer, who is yet
to strike in limited opportunities this term.
68 minutes per goal – Lionel Messi
103 mins – Alvaro Morata
108 mins – Cristiano Ronaldo
132 mins – Luis Suarez
159 mins – Karim Benzema
187 mins – Gareth Bale
238 mins - Neymar
No goals – Paco Alcacer
NEYMAR PROVIDES CREATIVE SPARK
Neymar may have compared poorly when it
came to goalscoring, but he has been
comfortably the most productive with assists in
2016-17.
Messi still features prominently, while Benzema
has only created one goal for his team-mates all
season.
12 – Neymar (16 apps)
7 – Lionel Messi (16 apps)
6 – Cristiano Ronaldo (15 apps)
5 – Luis Suarez (18 apps)
3 – Gareth Bale (16 apps)
3 – Alvaro Morata (17 apps)
1 – Karim Benzema (16 apps)
0 – Paco Alcacer (8 apps)
MAGNIFICENT MESSI
The measure of minutes-per-goal involvement
factors in both goals and assists to provide
combined numbers for each category.
Again, Messi comes out on top, although the
chasing pack are much more closely matched
when both goals and assists are taken into
account.
Overall, Barca's 'MSN' have performed better
than Madrid's 'BBC', with Morata staking his
claim for more regular first-team action.
Minutes per goal involvement:
50 – Lionel Messi
72 – Cristiano Ronaldo
75 – Alvaro Morata
79 – Neymar
91 – Luis Suarez
131 – Gareth Bale
136 – Karim Benzema
N/A – Paco Alcacer
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