Jesé Rodríguez, the crown jewel of La Fábrica, was given a first team contract this summer, but since then has found playing time hard to come by. In fact, he has played less minutes than any player who has appeared for Real Madrid this season.
To the right are the statistics for games and minutes played for the entire Real Madrid first team in 2013/2014. In 8 La Liga and Champions League games for Los Blancos, Jesé was omitted from the 18 man squad twice and did not play in four games that he dressed. He has seen the field in three matches, but has yet to play for more than 20 minutes. He is almost guaranteed to get more time with the Spain U21 team against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Thursday than the 32 total minutes he's been on the pitch with Madrid this season.
With the injury to Gareth Bale forcing the Welshman out for an indefinite period, now could be a good opportunity for Jesé to start getting a bit more playing time. Ángel Di María is brilliant on his day, but has problems with consistency and cannot be expected to play all the minutes in Bale's absence. Jesé can also play the CF position, and although Carlo Ancelotti seems to be keeping faith with Karim Benzema, if the Frenchman doesn't find his form soon then the coach will have to look elsewhere for production.
Of the three Real Madrid attacking places, two appear to be somewhat available. Cristiano Ronaldo, of course, will play every game if healthy. Ancelotti hasn't shown much favor towards Jesé or fellow canterano Álvaro Morata to this point, but they must keep pushing Di María and Benzema for the other starting roles.
Jesé is a forward that embodies of all the qualities valued in the Spanish game; he has pace, dribbling technique, an eye for goal, and can pick out teammates with pinpoint passes. Last season with Castilla, he set a new Real Madrid record for goals scored in the Segunda division, finding the back of the net 22 times and surpassing club legend Emilio Butragueño in the process. He also dished out 12 assists and was the primary reason why Castilla finished 8th in the table. At present, Madrid's reserve team sits at the bottom of the Liga Adelante with 0 point from 7 games. It's safe to say Castilla miss him this year, and fans of La Fábrica couldn't be blamed for wondering why he's riding the Bernabéu bench when he might be helping the B team get a result.
One could also argue that Jesé should have been loaned out like his Spain U21 teammate Gerard Deulofeu, but the Catalan has found minutes just as hard to come by with his new team. Deulofeu has made only three Premier League appearances for Everton, all of which came off the bench late in the game. He did, however, get a full 90 minutes in Everton's Capital One Cup match against Fulham, but the Toffees lost 2-1 and were eliminated from the competition.
So who has the better chance of playing more as the season goes on? Deulofeu so far has not been close to first choice for Roberto Martínez and has had to settle for minutes off the bench like Jesé. He will likely get more time in the FA Cup, just as Jesé should see more minutes in the Copa del Rey. As Madrid have the deeper squad and are competing on all fronts, Jesé will likely see the bulk of his opportunites in the Copa but realistically won't feature much in Liga or Champions. Deulofeu may yet break into the Everton starting XI as the Premier League progresses, but he also has to adapt to a new club, country, and culture, which is no easy task. Who gets more time may depend on how far both teams progress in their domestic cups, but Jesé definitely has more talented players ahead of him than Deulofeu does.
After hearing the seemingly endless praise for Barcelona's La Masia over the past several years, Madridistas are eager to see one of their own shine on the biggest stage. The Bernabéu faithful want to see Jesé succeed and are hopeful he gets the chance to do that with Real Madrid. At some point this season, Ancelotti will give him an opportunity, and Jesé must be ready to seize it.