Numbers behind Real Madrid’s dismal attacking form under Xabi Alonso | OneFootball

One win in five games. Such is the situation of Real Madrid since they left the Santiago Bernabeu on a long away trip after the win over Valencia, and it is clear that the board are concerned.

The team, after all, have looked uninspired in possession, slack in midfield and leaky in defence with only the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Thibaut Courtois consistently delivering.

Of all the departments in the field, however, it is growing glaringly clear that the forward department is the one in which the team have looked lacklustre the most and MARCA backs that hypothesis with numbers.

A dismal record

Taking the example of Real Madrid’s most recent game which was against Girona at Estadi Montilivi, Los Blancos racked up 25 shots on the night of which just four were on target.

More shockingly, two of those four were taken by the team’s centre-back Eder Militao.

It thus becomes clear that where the team lacked the most was in clinical finishing, and the spotlight turns to the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr., Arda Guler and Jude Bellingham who all started on the night.

Real Madrid over-reliant on Mbappe in attack. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

In the broader picture, Real Madrid are shockingly in the bottom six teams when considering the balance between expected goals and goals scored, suggesting how very poor they have been in converting their chances.

In their last three games alone, they have underperformed their xG by four implying that they should have scored at least four more goals easily.

What aggravates the situation is the fact that Xabi Alonso is unwilling to look beyond his usual crop of trusted names and trust youngsters who can help the team be more clinical.

Endrick, who finished his first season at Real Madrid with an average of 0.7 goals per game, has only played 11 minutes all season and the statistic monopoly puts into perspective how Alonso’s rigid ideas are limiting the squad’s potential.

At this point, it is clear that Real Madrid’s attack is solely surviving on the individual brilliance of Kylian Mbappe who has scored more than 50% of the team’s goals across all competitions.

There is a real need to improve as a unit, for if football has taught one thing over the years, individual brilliance is rarely enough.