Tactical Analysis: Decoding Real Madrid’s defensive flaws
By Sahel Kazi
2. Simply put, Real Madrid’s erratic tendencies
Monday’s game wasn’t the first time this season where Madrid’s ball progression was below-par. For some reference, the defeat to Rayo was only the third time the team had put up a total of progressive distance in passes (number of yards the ball travels towards the opposition goal through passes) fewer than 2500 yards all season in the league: 2101 yards in progressive passes, with the other two being a distant 2380 and 2437 against Celta and Sevilla respectively, according to stats from Fbref. What does this tell us? Simply just that Real Madrid finds it difficult to play through the first and second lines of defence against teams who come out and press the champions in midfield.
What that does point towards is the fact that they’re extremely susceptible to losing possession in the areas the likes of Kroos and Rudiger usually occupy, also that Rayo Vallecano’s pitch is by far the most compact playing surface in LaLiga. Except that the narrative here is about the former not the latter. With Benzema dropping deep and Valverde bringing the ball out of defence they manage slightly better numbers for sure but that far from eliminates the problem.
Without doubt, Real Madrid will start to concede a significantly less amount of high xG chances through their own errors if they tidy up their build-up play and become more press-resistant. Unless that happens, rest assured that brave and proactive high-pressing units like Rayo and Leipzig will run over them on most days.