An ‘armored’ Real Madrid with its best defense in more than 50 years

MADRID, 27 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Real Madrid will celebrate the end of the year as leader of LaLiga EA Sports 2023-2024, tied on 45 points with Girona, and equaling its best historical defensive record, with only 11 goals conceded in the first 18 games, also overcoming the multiple and key injuries in the defense and goal.

As teams coached by the Italian Carlo Ancelotti usually do, they seem to find virtue in balance. And the Real Madrid of the 2023-2024 season is one of the best examples, also updated with the new system adapted to the Englishman Jude Bellingham, a new cornerstone, and in which the eleven footballers on the pitch understand that defensive commitment is a task of everyone.

The whites have completed an almost immaculate first third of the season. Only the blank (3-1) in the derby against Atlético de Madrid at the Cívitas Metropolitano prevents the undefeated performance of a Madrid team that is the leader in the League, with 45 points, and that signed a full record of victories in its League group. Champions.

And all this despite the numerous casualties in just four months, even accumulating up to nine simultaneously. The first to fall, and with a long-term absence, was the Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who broke his cruciate before the start of the season. Same injury as Éder Militao on the first day. Two ‘sticks’ for Ancelotti’s plans, taking into account the hierarchy and importance of both footballers. To make matters worse, David Alaba suffered the same injury days ago.

Aurelien Tchouameni, Kepa Arrizabalaga – a theoretical replacement for Courtois – Arda Güler – yet to debut – Ferland Mendy and Dani Ceballos also went through the nursing. And they are followed by Dani Carvajal, Vinicius Jr. and Eduardo Camavinga. In addition, the Meringues also had to deal with sanctions on Nacho Fernandez and Antonio Rüdiger.

RÜDIGER, LEADER; AND THE METROPOLITAN DERBY, A TURNING POINT

However, the antidote prepared by Ancelotti was the Rüdiger-Alaba pairing, which, despite a certain weakness of the Austrian, worked perfectly without the Brazilian ‘marshal’, with the German raising his level by passing the demanding exam to lead the team with flying colors. Real Madrid’s best defense in more than 50 years. Furthermore, Lunin, with 4 goals in 7 games (0.7 per game), and Kepa, with 7 goals in 11 games (0.64), have defended the always complicated goal of the Madrid team with guarantees.

In the first 18 domestic matches, the Madrid team has only collected 11 balls from its nets, something that had only happened on two other occasions in its history. And in both they ended up winning the League. In the 1961-1962 season, they also conceded 11 goals in the same period, with José Araquistáin winning the ‘Zamora’.

Ten years later, in 1971-1972, the same number of goals conceded with Mariano García Remón in goal. And now, 52 years later, the Real Madrid team of the Italian coach’s fifth season repeats historical defensive records, to command the domestic table.

In this first stretch until the end of the year, Real Madrid kept a clean sheet nine times, in half of the games played -Athletic Club, Celta, Las Palmas, Girona, Osasuna, Rayo Vallecano, Cádiz, Granada and Alavés- . And the click for the Merengue defense was the painful defeat at the Metropolitano, where the team suffered too much in defense, with a weak approach whose seams were easily seen.

After that duel, Ancelotti incorporated some correction – such as defending without the ball with two lines of four very close together and Bellingham lying on the left – to considerably improve the data. And the subsequent numbers prove the Italian’s adjustments right, since Real Madrid, since that setback, has only conceded 5 goals in the last 12 games.

An improvement that has allowed the Italian to celebrate his best start in defensive terms in his five seasons as a white coach, in two stages, after his first 18 games. In his first year, in 2013-2014, his team conceded 22 goals, the worst figure on the Merengue bench, while in 2014-2015 and 2022-2023 there were 16; and in 2021-2022, 15. However, except for the last league conquest and in its first year, the team was unable to maintain that defensive solidity in the second part of the campaign.

LUNIN IS LEFT WITHOUT ZAMORA; KEPA COULD OPT

However, these numbers will not allow Lunin to qualify for the ‘Zamora’ award, due to the recent rotation that the Italian coach opts for in goal. Ancelotti lined up Kepa in the last Mendizorroza domestic match, thus preventing the Ukrainian, who has played 7 games – 20 remain – from reaching the minimum 28 games – with a minimum of 60 minutes in each – which sets the standard to be able to win. that recognition.

The Basque goalkeeper, with worse numbers than Lunin at this start, could fight for ‘Zamora’, which is now led by UD Las Palmas goalkeeper Álvaro Valles. Thus, he could be the first Real Madrid goalkeeper since Courtois in 2019-2020. Iker Casillas won it before, in 2007-2008; and Paco Buyo, in 1991-1992.

All these amazing defensive figures – the third best after the 9 goals against the French Nice and the 7 conceded by the Italian Inter – become one more argument to see Real Madrid as a great candidate for the league title, with Barça, Atlético and Girona also as candidates.

Furthermore, in 2024 it will be the calendar that examines the balance and defensive effort of Merengue, with the Copa del Rey entering the fray on the first weekend of the year, with no respite if they reach the semifinals of the tournament. From the beginning of January until the international break in March, eleven league rounds will be played, four cup rounds (three in a single match and the semi-finals in a double round), the round of 16 of the Champions League and the ‘Final Four’ of the Spanish Super Cup, first title of the year.

This translates into activity both on weekends and during the week from January 2, when LaLiga resumes, until March 15, when continental crossings conclude. In this way, without counting a hypothetical final of the Super Cup and in the event that the whites reach the semifinals of the ‘k.o. tournament’, they would accumulate 19 games in two and a half months until the end of March, 20 if they reach the title fight in Saudi Arabia.

2023-12-27 13:13:32
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