Rodrygo will insist that he is being used out of position. The in-form Brazilian, who has bagged 10 in all competitions this season and is well on his way to eclipsing previous career goalscoring highs, believes he is not a striker.
He is, in fact, very specific about where he functions most effectively. To get the best out of Rodrygo, you are, according to him, supposed to play him as a No.10 in a 4-2-3-1 system:
"In this one, with the 4-2-3-1 and behind Karim [Benzema], it is the position that I like the most and everyone knows this. I always talk about it with the coach," he told GOAL in February.
For all of his specificities, though, something is clearly working for Rodrygo. Currently operating as a right-sided attacker, the Brazilian, now 22, is in the form of his life. He endured a difficult start to the 2023-24 campaign, but has since found the spark that made him such a highly-rated talent. With eight goals over the last two months, there are very few players in Europe in better form than him.
And that's all very convenient for a Madrid team in a precarious spot. Although Los Blancos are second in La Liga, a series of muscle injuries sustained by Vinicius Jr, and the lack of depth behind him, seemed to have left the virtuosic Jude Bellingham to do it alone. But Rodrygo has shown he has other ideas. And the two, in tandem, have become one of the deadliest duos in Europe — good enough to keep Madrid well in the title race over the coming months.