The alarming stat that undermines Real Madrid’s title ambitions
‘Los Blancos’ are still competing on three fronts with the Cub World Cup to also come in June but could a porous defence be the team’s undoing?
Injuries have been taking their toll on Real Madrid’s defence all season with Fran García the only member of the rear guard not to have fallen foul of injury.
This situation has seen Carlo Ancelotti having to juggle his team constantly, occasionally fielding players out of position and the Italian also had to call on backup reserves from Real Madrid Castilla (B team) with Raul Asencio eventually consolidating his place in the first team.
This upheaval has been instrumental in seeing the team already ship 50 goals already, the same amount of goals conceded in the entire 2023-24 campaign.
The figures relate to Madrid averaging 1.11 goals conceded per game, provisionally the worst average for Madrid in the last six seasons, in which it had become accustomed to locking down its goal.
| Season | Matches | Goals conceded | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 45 | 50 | 1.11 |
| 2023-24 | 55 | 50 | 0.91 |
| 2022-23 | 61 | 62 | 1.02 |
| 2021-22 | 56 | 50 | 0.89 |
| 2020-21 | 52 | 46 | 0.88 |
| 2019-20 | 51 | 43 | 0.84 |
| 2018-19 | 57 | 71 | 1.25 |
| 2017-18 | 62 | 69 | 1.11 |
Between the two goalkeepers used this season (Lunin and Courtois) the team has kept 16 clean sheets and in recent weeks the team have struggled to keep opposing sides from finding the net with only two clean sheets in the last ten games: in La Liga against Girona and in the Cup against Real Sociedad.
In those ten games, nine different players have started in defence: Asencio (8 games), Mendy (6), Rüdiger, Tchouameni, Valverde (5), Lucas Vázquez, Fran García (4), Alaba (2) and Jacobo (1).
During those games, Ancelotti has used his defensive focused players in nine different combinations having only repeated the quartet formed by Valverde, Asencio, Rüdiger and Mendy, who played at the Bernabéu in the Champions League games against Manchester City and Atlético.
There was more defensive bad news for the Italian coach on Saturday morning with the news that Antonio Rudiger is suffering from flu and highly likely to miss Sunday’s home game against Rayo Vallecano with the German international expected to be fit for the Champions League R16 second leg against Atletico.
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