Team Focus: Madrid's Progression Sees Them Beat Barca at Their Own Game

There was something new about the teamsheets for Saturday’s clasico at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. It was Real Madrid, not Barcelona, who took to the field with more technically-adept playmakers in their XI.

All of Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Isco and James Rodriguez started for Madrid in central areas, with coach Carlo Ancelotti saying pre-game that he expected his midfield to look to have more possession than Barca’s and control the game by holding the ball.

This was quite a change from Madrid’s usual game-plan for clasicos under previous boss Jose Mourinho, when the idea was to out-battle more technical but less athletic opponents. Mourinho famously fielded Pepe in midfield at times against Barca, and regularly used a ‘trivote’ including other battlers such as Lass Diarra and Sami Khedira.

This tactic was -- in fairness to the Special One -- ultimately successful. And Madrid’s goals on Saturday all stemmed from Barca weaknesses that Los Blancos have learned to exploit - room behind Dani Alves, set-piece weaknesses in the air, and vulnerability on the break.

But there was something different about this Madrid performance. This was not Madrid being physically stronger and bullying Barca out of the game. Instead a more talented and creative Blancos side won the game, with the post-game statistics showing that Ancelotti’s midfield actually out-passed their opposite numbers.

“The key to the game was that after Neymar’s goal we kept to our idea of attacking not just through counter-attacks, but also with efficient possession of the ball,” Ancelotti said afterwards. Such a victory was especially enjoyable for many Blancos fans and pundits and has lead to extra anguish and soul-searching among the sensitive blaugrana commentariat.

The change in approach becomes apparent when we look back to the most telling game of Mourinho’s three seasons as Madrid boss, the 2-1 win at the Camp Nou in April 2012.

Despite losing that night, Barca came out on top by 72% to 28% in possession, 677 to 256 in passes made and 86% to 62% in pass success. Goalkeeper Iker Casillas actually completed the most passes of any Madrid player [35], with Xabi Alonso next [33]. Alonso’s 78.8% pass completion was the best of his side’s starters.

Mourinho surely did not worry too much about these figures as Ronaldo’s late breakaway goal all but sealed a triumph in that season’s title race. But there remained pundits and fans in Madrid who disliked seeing their side play like a ‘small’ team, packing the defence and ceding possession to their opponents. Club president Florentino Perez was also thought to perhaps hold this view.

Ancelotti took over at the Bernabeu in summer 2013, promising spectacular and attacking football, with the unspoken message being that he would get Madrid playing like a ‘big’ side again. That message was doubted when Sergio Ramos started in midfield in last season’s first clasico, but bit by bit the Italian has delivered on his initial promise.

In last April’s Copa del Rey final -- with Cristiano Ronaldo injured -- Ancelotti fielded a more possession-based team. Isco replaced Ronaldo in the line-up, and completed 91.7% of his passes, with Luka Modric [89.7%] and Alonso [86.8%] close behind.

Madrid won 2-1, with both Angel Di Maria and Gareth Bale’s goals coming from lightning breaks. Barca were still well on top in possession [68%] and total passes [677-330], but Madrid had made up ground in pass success [89% to 79%].

The evolution of Ancelotti’s team then continued when -- with or without the first team coach’s approval -- Alonso and Di Maria left the Bernabeu last summer. The arrivals of James, and particularly Kroos, have made the team even more possession conscious. Then Bale’s absence through a back injury ensured that Madrid went into Saturday’s game with arguably more talented midfield ball-players in their XI than Barca.

The stats backed up that sensation after the game. Seven of the home side’s starting XI had a pass completion rate over 87%. Luka Modric completed 100% of his 42 attempted passes. Kroos made 60 at a 92% success rate. Isco had 87.9% accuracy with his 33. Only Ronaldo was wasteful in possession, with his 62.9% success rate the lowest of all 14 Madrid players.

On the other side Xavi Hernandez -- while he lasted on the pitch -- had the highest pass completion of Barca’s midfielders with 94.2%. The numbers for Iniesta [87.7%] and Sergio Busquets [86.7%] especially do not look to good compared to those of Madrid's Karim Benzema [92.9%] and even Pepe [87.5%]. For long periods of the game a blaugrana midfield was actually out-passed at the Bernabeu.

The changes are also shown by a look at how the passing stats of Madrid's defenders have changed over this time. In that 2012 Camp Nou match, six of Pepe’s 13 attempted passes were long balls, while the Portugal centre-back had a miserly completion rate of 38.5%. On Saturday Pepe hit 26 of his 32 passes short. Even Ancelotti's least cultured outfield-player is now encouraged to hold possession and pass out from the back.

At this stage some caveats should be included. Over the first nine games in this Liga season Madrid’s average possession is 56.2%. In 2011/12, when Mourinho’s team won the title with 100 points, they actually had slightly more - 56.9%. Even in Saturday’s clasico Barca still had more possession of the ball (58%), and made more passes in total at a higher completion rate (90%).

But the pendulum has definitely swung Madrid’s way and the trend will surely continue as Kroos, who has already made more passes than any other player in La Liga so far this season (670), settles in Spain, and as Xavi fades even further from the blaugrana picture.

We already knew before the first clasico of the 2014/15 season that Real Madrid could beat Barcelona. But Saturday’s game has shown that Ancelotti's side is now capable of taking on and beating the Catalans at their own passing game.

What did you make of Real Madrid's performance against Barcelona at the weekend? Let us know in the comments below