Real Madrid: beyond the kilometres, an intensity deficit

The Real Madrid that does not “run”: in a derby as significant as this one, a defeat is enough to expose the losing side’s shortcomings. This time, the assessment concerns Real Madrid. Twenty-four hours after the 2-1 loss to Atleti, the figure began circulating: the Madrid club are the team that runs the least in LaLiga.

The phrase is easy to repeat, but it is also overly simplistic. In football, the speed at which a team covers the pitch matters more than the overall number of kilometres recorded. Barcelona, the LaLiga leaders, illustrate the point: measuring football solely in kilometres tells only part of the story. Total distance can be identical for a team jogging as a unit and another making repeated full-speed runs in transitions, without the overall metric distinguishing between them. Such an extreme case could occur.

That distance adds up every movement: recovery runs after losing the ball, movements without pressure, and also the bursts that decide a match. The data split them into speed bands. Under Driblab’s classification, which is close to those used by other data companies, high-speed running ranges from 19.8 to 25.2 km/h, while sprinting begins above 25.2 km/h.

These are the metres covered when pressing a build-up, running into space or chasing a turnover in the opposition half that deserve attention. Much of the rest amounts to neutral mileage. Saying that Madrid “do not run” therefore misuses the term: when referring to distance covered, walking and jogging phases must also be counted. The more accurate observation is that Real Madrid cover less ground than their rivals.

The figure is 104.3 km per match on average, the lowest total among LaLiga’s 20 teams, rather than 84 km as has been reported elsewhere. A fitness coach from a first-division team points out that it is highly unusual for an entire side to cover fewer than 100 km in a match.

The pattern continues in high-speed running: 4,975.5 metres per game, again the lowest total, along with 338.5 actions at that pace, also bottom of the table. Three indicators, three last places. There is a nuance in sprinting, however: with 2,248 metres per match, Madrid rank 11th in LaLiga, almost exactly around the average.

Mourinho’s team therefore sprint at a rate close to the rest of LaLiga. The issue comes before that threshold, in the overall volume and, above all, in high-speed running, the band of effort most often connected to a recovery, a run into space or an effective press.

Barcelona take the reasoning in the opposite direction. The leaders cover 108.6 km per match, the 16th-highest figure in the competition, and are not even among the ten teams that run the most. A title contender and a team with an unremarkable start to the season can therefore share the lower half of the mileage table; what separates them lies in the speed at which that effort is produced.

In high-speed running, Barcelona rise to sixth with 5,858.8 metres per match, nearly 900 more than the white-clad side. They are also third for the number of actions at that speed, with 413.4. Above all, their 132.4 sprints per match are the highest figure in LaLiga, well clear of Osasuna’s 78.8, the lowest-sprinting team in the competition.

That rise from 16th in total distance to first in sprints partly explains why Barcelona lead the standings while Madrid post LaLiga’s lowest high-intensity figures. The argument put forward is that the kilometres table and the points table do not always match, whereas the table for maximum-speed efforts looks much more like the latter. Total distance can be misleading: the real gap lies in high intensity.