Are Real Madrid the Most Delicately Balanced Team in World Football?

Roughly 300 miles both south and east of Madrid lie two important sites in world sport. One, in Andalusia, is the Circuito de Jerez; the other, in Montmelo, is the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Both, as their names suggest, are race tracks. And both share a common purpose: They're pre-season testing locations for Formula One, sites where the most finely tuned tools in sport are prepared, tweaked and honed for the season ahead. 

Naturally, they're serious places. Insanely intense. And they host pre-seasons of exactly that nature—ones based around excruciating attention to detail; not ones centred on low-key exhibition matches held in far corners of the globe aimed at marketing. 

Perhaps Real Madrid could benefit from visiting?

OK, so we're not suggesting Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. should don some helmets and fireproof suits to go flying around Formula One testing sites (though, from what appears on social media, many of them already own cars appropriate for the task).

But there is an interesting question to consider here: Is the current Real Madrid team the most delicately balanced outfit in the game? Like a Formula One car, have we now seen enough to conclude that this incarnation of Real Madrid possesses the most stunning but ultimately fragile balance of all?

Denis Doyle/Getty Images

In that sense, Sunday's extraordinary mauling of Granada represents a notable example, a sort of reference point. In the space of just 89 minutes, Los Blancos fired home as many goals as they had in the previous 708 (in La Liga). Basically, prior to Sunday, more than seven-and-a-half games had been required to score nine times.

Then, suddenly, 9-1 happened, with Ronaldo scoring five. 

"We must highlight how the team has returned to playing as we want," manager Carlo Ancelotti told a news conference in the aftermath of the barrage, before adding: "Cristiano has improved, as the team has improved."

The Italian's point was a simple one: Sunday wasn't a case of Ronaldo putting a struggling team on his back and single-handedly hauling Real out of a slump; instead, the Portuguese was able to recapture his own form because those around him did too. 

In short, it was the process that pleased Ancelotti; Ronaldo's goals were the outcome. 

So what changed?

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As explained previously, it was no coincidence that the torching of Granada occurred simultaneously with the return of James Rodriguez. Though still in his first season at the Bernabeu, it's becoming increasingly clear how integral the Colombian is to Ancelotti's XI. 

Alongside Luka Modric (who's also recently returned following a lengthy layoff), the World Cup sensation provides Real Madrid with staggering efficiency, a sort of enviable economy. With that pair present, the ball flies around the pitch. It zips from side to side, up and back. 

The movement is effortless. But more importantly, it's instantaneous. There's no delay or hesitation; moves forward unfold in a flash. Instead of dribble, dribble, dribble, pause, pass, it's instead: pass, pass, pass, pass, shoot. 

The difference, as made evident on Sunday, is profound. 

But here's the catch: An extraordinarily precise balance is required for it all to work that way. Like a Formula One car, make one small adjustment to a particular component of this Real Madrid team, and even though 90 percent of it remains exactly the same, everything changes. 

Indeed, the following table demonstrates just what happens to Los Blancos' scoring output when Rodriguez and/or Modric are taken out of the lineup:

In Games...	No. of Games	Goals per Game
When James, Modric both start	11	4.18
Without James OR Modric	12	2.67
Without BOTH James and Modric	6	1.50

Whichever way you look at it, the numbers are remarkable. Take the Colombian and Croatian out of Real Madrid's supply line, and the team's scoring power drops by almost three goals per game. Three. 

And just as interesting is that the presence of the two attacking midfielders has a significantly greater impact on Los Blancos than whether or not the "BBC"—Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema—line up together as a trio:

In Games...	No. of Games	Goals per Game
With BBC intact	22	2.82
Without BBC together	7	3.57

What that data shows us is that this Real Madrid outfit isn't a great all-rounder—it's not inherently flexible. Because of a precarious balance, the system employed by the team isn't one that continues to function optimally when changes are made to it. 

Instead, Real Madrid have, as it was once described by former McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh to Sky Sports, a very specific "sweet spot."

Like the cars of which Whitmarsh used to oversee development, when Real Madrid hit that sweet spot, when the delicate balance is struck, the result is what happened to Granada. With just a piece or two out of place—and those "pieces" in this case are Rodriguez and Modric—you get what happened at the San Mames. 

Such a situation appears to have been created by the presence of the club's three superstar forwards, Real's "untouchables": Ronaldo, Bale and Benzema. 

Between them, there's so much scoring power, so much force. So much breathtaking brilliance. But what's sometimes overlooked is that all three thrive in an identical manner: when they're in space.  

Because all three are defined as athletes, each needing the same commodity, a very specific environment is required for them to simultaneously thrive. It's similar in a sense to a car possessing 1,000 horsepower—if there isn't the correct system in place to get that power on the ground, the capacity of the engine can never be harnessed, the sweet spot never struck. 

Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images

That's what we seem to be witnessing at the Bernabeu this season: a delicate balance that, when left undisturbed, produces staggering results. 

Held together by Rodriguez and Modric, Real Madrid's system relies on rapid ball movement and one-touch passing to release the forwards into space. It's about speed, economy. The midfield has to work with efficiency as the ultimate facilitators.

But it's bordering on impossible to plug other parts (players) into it and maintain that efficiency. The margins are so fine. The tuning is so precise.

In world football, is there another team like this?

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