Carlo Ancelotti giving 18-year-old forward a baptism by fire at Real Madrid | OneFootball

Real Madrid won the La Liga and the UEFA Champions League double last season, and rather expectingly, there were not a lot of new additions to the Merengue squad in the last summer transfer window.

However, Carlo Ancelotti still received a world-class reinforcement in the form of Kylian Mbappe, who finally joined Los Blancos after having been linked with them for several years.

While Mbappe took most of the limelight in the summer, there was another highly promising arrival at the white club, i.e., the young Brazilian striker Endrick. The 18-year-old striker had been impressing in his native country for more than a year, and the Merengues were quick to pounce on him as they paid €47.5 million for him in December 2022.

He finally joined the Spanish champions last summer, after having turned 18 years of age, and there were a lot of expectations set on him by the Real Madrid fans, especially keeping in view his performances with Palmeiras and the Brazilian national team.

However, the first half of the 2024-25 season has been anything but easy for the young striker, as Carlo Ancelotti has been quite reluctant to give him many opportunities to shine on the pitch.

This was particularly the case as the Merengues underwent a kind of crisis after their defeats to Barcelona and AC Milan. Similarly, Los Blancos have not had a lot of margin for error in either La Liga or the UEFA Champions League.

In the former competition, Blaugranes under Hansi Flick looked to be running away with the title. They have lost steam in the last few weeks, but in that time, Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid have picked up pace, and are now competing with the two big Spanish teams for the leadership of the La Liga table.

Similarly, Real Madrid have been fighting for survival in the UCL, and cannot afford to drop any more points in the last two games of the League Phase.

In such circumstances, Ancelotti has relied mostly on his more trusted players, and despite the injuries and physical problems of Vinicius, Rodrygo, and Mbappe, Endrick has not had many minutes to play on the pitch.

In total, he has played 12 games in La Liga, but these 12 appearances have totalled only 123 minutes on the pitch, averaging only 10 minutes in every game. The case is similar in UCL, where he has played 3 games, including 1 start, and totalling 78 minutes on the pitch. In this competition, his average time in each match goes up to 26 minutes.

The Brazilian has scored a goal in both of these competitions, but other than that, he has not really been able to show his skills on the pitch. According to Sofascore statistics, he has missed 2 big chances in La Liga, where his scoring average comes up to be only 10%, as he takes 0.8 shots on average in each game, 0.3 of which land on goal, but he has actually scored only 1 goal.

His limited time on the pitch has also kept him from showcasing his passing skills, as he averages only 2 accurate passes in every game and a 40% dribbling success rate.

Hopefully, he will get more chances to impress as the second half of the season kicks off, and Real Madrid start their Copa del Rey and Spanish Super Cup campaigns, along with the already underway La Liga and UCL campaigns.

This first half of the season has been far from easy for him, but hopefully, Ancelotti will be able to get him in better form, as there is no doubt that he can come in handy in situations when Real Madrid need an extra attacking threat.