Visual analysis from Real Madrid’s draw against Villarreal

Real Madrid lost two crucial points at La Ceramica against Villarreal — an opponent who tactically dominated Los Blancos for the second time this season. Here’s a brief graphical thread on the disappointing draw before Real Madrid travel to Paris for another mammoth fixture:

Passing network

Real Madrid’s dependency on Vinicius Jr was pretty evident. But Villarreal dealt with it rather well, especially in the 1st half. Casemiro and Toni Kroos’s horizontal closeness is a noticeable wrinkle. Gareth Bale was largely disconnected from the team apart from a couple of encouraging moments before he was taken off.

Kroos

Toni Kroos had to operate up and down, and across the whole pitch. Some of his long diagonal balls to Dani Carvajal and Marco Asensio on the right flank were vintage.

Finally: Asensio, off the ball

We’re trying to track off the ball movement with pass reception areas. A lot of Asensio’s movement between two pass reception events within 10 seconds is around close circuits. As a forward, he might do serve Madrid better if he can try to find better spaces upon the quicker exchange of passes.