Team Focus: Real Madrid Success Built on Solidity on the Road

Real Madrid's 1-0 victory at Rayo Vallecano on Sunday was Jose Mourinho's men's ninth consecutive league win on the road.

It also kept up Real's amazing record of having only dropped eight points all season through 24 games (2.66 points per game), however that run has been amassed in two very different ways.

At home Los Merengues are rampant in attack, scoring an average of 4.1 goals per game, whilst at the same time being a little less mean at the back, their 1.25 average goals conceded is by far the worst of the leaders in Europe’s five major leagues at home (Man City 0.5, Dortmund 0.6, Milan 0.5, Montpellier 0.6).

Away from home it is the polar opposite, Real's scoring rate is a little more humble at 2.58 but they have been far more reliable at the back, conceding just six goals in 12 games.

The most obvious reason for the disparity between the two is probably a touch of complacency in the home games. Real have allowed early leads to Rayo Vallecano, Atlético Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Levante and Real Zaragoza at the Bernabéu and first-half equalisers to Osasuna, Getafe and Granada before going on to run out comfortable winners.

On the road their focus and concentration has been better, even if their football hasn't. In particular the last three games away at Mallorca (1-2), Getafe (0-1) and Rayo have been classic championship winning performances, the type where three points are valued over style points. Moreover, they have been performances more akin to a Mourinho team. He may have admitted that Rayo deserved more for their efforts on Sunday, but he loved the character showed by his side in a hostile atmosphere with their backs against the wall.

Pepe and Sergio Ramos in particular stood up to Rayo's bombardment and their number of clearances per game show the extra pressure they have been under when playing away from the Bernabéu. Ramos’ figure nearly doubles at 6.4 clearances a game compared to 3.3 at home, whilst Pepe’s also increases significantly from 3.2 to 5.3.

It is also interesting that in the WhoScored average ratings, when Real play at home the top performers are more forward thinking players (excluding those who have played less than five games). However, away from home Ramos (7.55), Marcelo (7.21), Fabio Coentrao (7.08) and Pepe (7.05) all feature in the top 10.

This added reliance on defensive players is hardly surprising when you see where Real are playing the majority of the game on their travels. Amazingly for a side with a goal difference of +25 away from home, 28% of the play is conducted inside Real’s half compared to just 24% in the home team’s and the remaining 47% in the middle of the field.

The percentage of touches taken in each third of the field helps to explain two things. The first is that Real, as a lethal counter-attacking side, are actually quite comfortable at not relentlessly taking the game to the opposition and at times prefer to suck them out of position before launching the counter. Real have scored 12 goals resulting from fastbreaks, three times the amount anyone else in the league has managed, and also four more than anyone in the top five leagues in Europe (Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and Cologne all on eight).

The other is that teams are so wary of Real’s threat that even at home they sit back and allow Mourinho’s men to have possession in their own half before pressuring when they come further up the field. This is a tactic employed even more heavily against Barcelona who have only managed to play in the opposition’s half 21% of the time on their travels this season.

These tactics therefore naturally allow for a lower scoring game than those at the Bernabéu where Real can go for the throats of the opposition from the first whistle, but more importantly highlight a flexibility in Madrid’s play that has helped them be so successful this season.

By having a very distinctive plan B, Real have had an edge over Barcelona this season, particularly away from home where they have amassed 11 more points than the Catalans. Eleven more points which will surely mean the return of the league title to the capital in a few months time.