A bipolar Real Madrid

“Nor I have an explanation. We alternate good and bad moments, the other day in Milan we played well and three days later, to play a game like this at home … It's complicated. But it is our reality, we do not have regularity. We can't change the dynamics of the games and that bothers me. And I think the players too ”. Zidane also does not understand what happens to this two-faced Real Madrd, a bipolar team capable of the best and the worst, of beating Barcelona (1-3) and Inter (0-2) in their own stadiums and then accumulating slowdowns against Cádiz (0-1), Shakhtar (2-3) or Alavés (1-2). The general theory indicates a lack of attitude on the part of a locker room whose office hours are long, but which is activated as duels gain height. This is the only way to explain a draw at Mönchengladbach's home a few days after breaking the Classic, or wasting the inertia of a convincing 3-2 at Inter in Valdebebas receiving a beating in Valencia (4-1).

The defeat against Alavés was the third in this league; throughout the last championship, in which Madrid were proclaimed champions, they lost the same matches. He has barely scored 16 goals in ten dates and has conceded more than one goal per game: he has 12 last season, Zidane's men closed the league with only 25 conceded goals; At the current rate, this edition would have 46 goals against for Madrid, almost double. And it is that the defensive strength that Madrid showed at the beginning of the course (three clean sheets in four games) remained a mirage: Zidane's men have conceded at least one goal in nine of their last ten games and not even Courtois, the last frontier, maintains the level. Against Alavés, the Belgian spoiled a solvent performance (four stops, two of great merit) giving Joselu the ball from 0-2. Second big mistake in two days: in Vila-real he committed the penalty of the yellow tie.

To have or not to have the ball

Obviously, the numerous losses in attack and medullary that have been dragging (Benzema, Hazard, Valverde …) have diminished the white offensive flow. But the root of this duality could also lie in the white exit plan. In his four defeats of the course (three in the League, one in the Champions League) he accumulated extensive possessions (against Cádiz he reached 75%), while in his renowned triumphs that percentage fell a lot (In the Classic, in fact, it stayed at 48%). After the data, a Madrid is much more comfortable being dominated than dominating. Quite a problem for those who defend that shield.