Real Madrid click into gear: 15 goals in four games
Madrid have hit their stride in recent games, not only keeping clean sheets but also showing a real ruthlnessness in front of goal.
Having spent the season resembling a stuttering old clunker that steadfastly refuses to get into gear, Real Madrid have suddenly taken on the look of a well-oiled, unstoppable race car. The enforced October hiatus brought about by the postponement of the Clásico provided Los Blancos with an opportunity not only to replenish their fuel tank, but also fill up their boot with gunpowder.
15 goals in four games for on-fire Real Madrid
In the last four games - and despite drawing a blank against Real Betis - Zinedine Zidane's men have scored no fewer than 15 goals; in their first 12 matches of the campaign, they managed just 19. Either side of the goalless draw with Betis, there have been five and six-goal thrashings of Leganés and Galatasaray, respectively, before Eibar were hit for four on Saturday. And this success in attack has been allied with far greater defensive solidity - so much so that goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has come away from each of Madrid's last five games with a clean sheet.
A statistic that goes a long way towards explaining Madrid's prolific recent form is their accuracy in front of goal. In three of their last four matches, over 60% of their shots have been on target; before then, they had only achieved such a percentage in two games this term, against Granada and Celta Vigo. In the four September matches against Paris Saint-Germain, Sevilla, Osasuna and Atlético Madrid - a run of games which yielded just three goals - their ratio went as low as 28.21%.
Another eye-catching figure is their chance-conversion rate. In Eibar this weekend, Madrid found the net with a season-high 40% of their attempts on goal - a ruthlessness that meant it scarcely mattered that their overall shots tally of 10 was in fact the second-lowest of the season. In 2019/20 so far, the only match in which they have had fewer attempts is the 3-0 defeat to PSG.
Madrid's best run in front of goal in a year
Real Madrid are on their best scoring run in exactly a year. They have not hit 15 goals in any four-game spell since heading into last November's international break on the back of 4-0, 2-0, 5-0 and 4-2 wins over Melilla, Real Valladolid, Viktoria Plzen and Celta, respectively, in former coach Santi Solari's opening matches at the helm.