A year and a half after being signed from Boavista, Petar Musa left Benfica to join MLS side Dallas FC. With an eagle on his chest, the Croatian striker was rarely the first option – he was a starter in just 15 of 66 games in which he participated – but still stood out for his scoring ability in the little playing time he usually had.
In a season and a half, Musa added 17 goals in a total of 2,008 minuteswhich gives an average of one accurate shot every 118 minutes: better record, with the exception of the recently signed Marcos Leonardo, than that of any other forward for the Reds.
But how important was the 25-year-old striker’s goals really on Benfica’s results?
In the Portuguese League, for example, Musa scored 12 goals. Of these, just two They came at a time when Roger Schmidt’s team did not have an advantage: in one of their rare starts last season, against Estoril in Amoreira, when they opened the scoring in the 25th minute in a 5-1 victory. And on the trip to Vizela, when he opened the scoring in the difficult 2-1 victory. But never (read League games) has a goal from Musa prevented a defeat or given the Reds a triumph.
Furthermore, Benfica was already leading on all other occasions in which the striker entered the list of goalscorers, but that does not mean that the fate of the games was already set. It was almost always like this, but not always. In Vizela, without Musa’s opening goal, the epilogue could have been different or, weeks earlier, Musa’s goal, which made it 3-1 in added time, took on greater importance because right after Gil Vicente reduced it to 3-2.
Petar Musa’s numbers in the Portuguese League (SofaScore)
If we take other competitions into consideration, the importance of the Balkan forward grows. He opened the scoring in a narrow 3-2 victory over Estrela in the League Cup last season; in the Cup tie with Caldas (also in 2022/23), in which he scored the only goal for Benfica, which would go on to eliminate the team from the West region only in a penalty shoot-out; in the 6-1 defeat of Maccabi Haifa (a goal, which would be scored by João Mário, made the difference in the Reds passing the group in first place ahead of PSG); and in the 3-3 draw with Inter (2nd leg of the Champions League quarter-finals in 2022/23), in which he scored the goal that changed nothing in the tie, but which allowed Schmidt’s team to snatch a draw at the Giuseppe Meazza.
Better muse to leave the bench?
It is a statement often repeated by supporters and analysts of the phenomenon. And, in fact, the numbers support it.
The Croatian’s 2,008 minutes at Benfica are divided as follows: 943 minutes in games as a starter; 1.065 jumping off the bench. If there is almost a “technical draw” here, when it comes to goals, the Substitute Musa beats main Musa by KO: they are 13 goals (one goal every 82 minutes) faced with just four (one goal every 236 minutes) in games in which the striker started.
Several factors may justify the disparity in numbers: the context of the games, most of which have already been resolved, or the opponents having to take more risks in search of the result will have been favorable to Musa’s characteristics, who has become accustomed to doing a lot in a short time. of a game that was time with an eagle on his chest.