After one title, against Atalanta, and eight official matches later, Carlo Ancelotti is still trying to improve the team’s play. The sensations transmitted are shared by the vast majority: the team is not organised, the strikers occupy similar areas, there is not much organisation and the midfielders run more than they should. There are clear arguments to explain the current problems. The swap of Toni Kroos for Kylian Mbappé is a substantial change.
The main function of statistics is to establish a rigorous context to analyse and explain reality, as well as to quantify to what extent and how what we think is happening is happening. If you like football and watch Real Madrid play, you know that changing the brains of the team for another centre-forward has to change the performance in both form and substance. That is to say, it is ‘simple’ to recognise that the whole team’s play, both on the ball and in possession, is different. And for now, until further notice, Real Madrid is playing worse. To visualise how Real Madrid has been playing this way, we turn to multiple metrics and graphical maps to understand a change.
It is a matter of time before Real Madrid find better connections, stabilise, play less rashly and the players definitely start to get physical, but until that happens, it is evident that offensive production has fallen by more than half at the moment in goals per 90 minutes and considerably less production in Expected Goals. There are fewer attacks, less dangerous and involving fewer players. Everything is more discontinuous and individual. But if we stop metric by metric we find relevant information.
The number of ball progressions in the final third is striking: 76 in the 23/24 season compared to 62.5 in the current season. An indicator that represents a lower number of attacks and fewer recoveries in the opposition half. Less dominance and less precision. In terms of passing metrics, as we see below, Real Madrid make longer passes, specifically, on average, three metres longer, a huge distance in the context of the game and team averages. Longer passes compromise accuracy and dominance, where Kroos controlled the tempo of possessions.
Something similar happens with the +10 pass possessions: 18.4 per 90′ in the current season, compared to 21 possessions last season. In addition, a long pass is played for every 12.6 passes, compared to 18.7 on average before making a long pass. The team is much more vertical, trying to find the speed of Mbappé, Vinicius, Valverde, Rodrygo, Bellingham or Camavinga. The summary is easy to get to: less control in exchange for more individual imbalance. In the following maps we can get more clues as to where Real Madrid are passing.
Real Madrid Passing by Zone – Season 2023/24 (with Kroos)
Real Madrid Passing by zones – Season 2024/25 (without Kroos)
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