Comparing Gareth Bale's 2014/15 Stats to His 2013/14 Numbers

Gareth Bale enjoyed a successful first season at Real Madrid. He provided plenty of goals and assists and scored the go-ahead goals in the club’s Copa del Rey and Champions League triumphs.

But things have not gone as well for the Welshman in his second campaign at the Bernabeu. He has been criticised by supporters and the media alike for his performances and attitude and was recently told to “sort himself out,” by his former Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp, as per Guillem Balague of AS.

Per WhoScored.com, the 25-year-old has still directly contributed to 25 goals in league and Champions League during 2014-15, but both his final-third output and defensive involvement have been reduced in comparison to his debut season in Spain.

The table below compares Bale’s direct goal contributions across his two campaigns in Madrid on both an outright and per-90-minute basis. The figures take into account appearances in La Liga and the Champions League.

Season	Goals	Assists	Goals Per 90	Assists Per 90	Goals + Assists Per 90
2013-14	21	16	0.64	0.49	1.13
2014-15	15	10	0.40	0.26	0.66

His output this season is still far from terrible, but there has nevertheless been a clear reduction in comparison to his debut campaign.

The biggest drop-off is in the Champions League. Bale’s combined goals and assists in that competition have fallen from 1.03 per 90 minutes last season to just 0.33 per 90 minutes this time around.

He has gone from providing a decisive contribution in every match to doing so just once in every three in Europe’s premier club competition.

Drilling down another level into his attacking numbers indicates that Bale is taking more or less the same number of shots per 90 minutes as last season (3.62 compared to 3.66) but that the distribution of those shots, in so far as their distance from goal, has changed.

The table below shows the percentage of Bale’s shots that were taken from three zones of the pitch: The six-yard box, inside the penalty area and outside the penalty area.

Season	Six-Yard Box	Penalty Area	Outside Area
2013-14	4.20%	52.94%	42.86%
2014-15	9.49%	54.01%	36.50%

It is interesting to note the shift here. During the current campaign, he has taken a much higher percentage of shots from inside the six-yard box and less shots from outside the area.

Unsurprisingly, shots from closer in are much more likely to result in goals than those from farther out—as evidenced by Michael Caley of SB Nation—but despite a reduction in his average shot distance, Bale's goal output has dropped season-on-season. He is getting into good positions to score but has been unable to convert his chances at a rate equivalent to that which he managed from more difficult positions last season.

Finally, here is a table comparing Bale’s defensive numbers in his two campaigns in Madrid, in so far as tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes.

Season	Tackles Per 90	Interceptions Per 90	T+I Per 90
2013-14	1.05	0.87	1.92
2014-15	0.77	0.42	1.19

The Welshman has been criticised for his defensive contribution this season and the numbers would suggest that this has been warranted. He has made less than half as many interceptions per 90 minutes, while his tackle numbers have also decreased.

It must be noted that it is possible to help out defensively by doing things that go unrecorded, such as tracking runners or pressing to force errors that are seized upon by team-mates. But from what is recorded, Bale’s contribution has lessened season-on-season.

Per Sky Sport Italia (h/t AS), Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti is likely to depart following Saturday’s season-ender against Getafe. And whoever takes the reigns will surely place priority on returning Bale to the form he showed during his first season in the Spanish capital.