A Progress Report on Real Madrid Heading into October International Break

The whistle had blown for full-time, and Rafa Benitez wasn't wasting any of his. A frustrated look on his face, a perplexing 90 minutes behind him, the Real Madrid manager quickly departed down the tunnel at the Vicente Calderon with one overriding thought: "Two points dropped," as he would communicate later. 

It probably was, but at the same time, it could easily have been three. A point gained in the derby was hardly disastrous, and it might even be considered progress. 

Last term under Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid visited the Calderon to face neighbours Atletico Madrid four times—once each in the Spanish Super Cup, the Copa del Rey, the league and the Champions League. In 360 minutes or six hours of football on the banks of the Manzanares, the men in white didn't score once. Not a single goal. On one occasion they walked away with a draw; on the other three they walked away with humbling defeats, one of them a 4-0 evisceration that was the beginning of the end for Ancelotti. 

In short, the Calderon became a red, white and blue hell. But it wasn't this time.

This time Real scored and also dominated in patches, eventually leaving with at least something from one of the two toughest fixtures on their calendar. Is that not progress? A step forward, albeit small? Well, sort of, yes. But many are arguing sort of no, too.

On each side on the divide, however, no one is really sure, and that's essentially the point. 

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Though Benitez's men missed a chance to go top of the table on Sunday, the raw facts look good: Real Madrid are undefeated, sit second on the table, are one point off top and sit two places ahead of Barcelona and three ahead of Atletico. Judging by the numbers, they also have the joint-best attack in the league with 15 goals scored and the division's tightest defence with only two conceded. 

What's more, in Karim Benzema they have the league's top scorer; in Cristiano Ronaldo, they have the joint-second. And no one in the league has more assists than Gareth Bale. 

In theory, then, most should be relatively pleased, and yet most are not. "Benitez in the sin bin," ran a Marca headline this week. "First big disappointment," said another. Over at AS, the criticism was sharper again: "[Benitez] is in no-man's land."

There is a palpable discontent in the capital, discontent born not so much out of the derby draw itself but for the manner of it and what it supposedly says about Benitez's team. 

Though Real enjoyed a bright start and led early on through Benzema's opener, Sunday's visitors didn't register a second shot on target against Atleti until the 91st minute, and that lone attempt came from almost 30 yards. By the end, the shot count read 18 to nine in the hosts' favour, defensive pair Casemiro and Keylor Navas had been Benitez's best players and Real's second-half performance was curiously conservative. 

Inevitably, questions quickly followed: Was this a performance that lacked ambition, or was it a sound tactical display away from home? Was it a worrying performance in attack or a positive one in defence? Were Real any good or just, well, not bad?

Essentially, it was a microcosm of Real Madrid's season: it was hard to know what to make of it. Everything seems to come with a caveat. 

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As a team, Madrid have scored 15 league goals in seven games but plundered 11 of them in two, meaning it's four strikes from the other five. At the back, they've conceded only twice, but Navas has saved two penalties and made some brilliant stops, while Granada were wrongly disallowed a goal at the Bernabeu that would have earned them a point. 

On a personal level, Ronaldo has five goals in seven games but is scoreless in six. 

These details aren't going unnoticed, particularly by Benitez's detractors. For every positive (this column points out several), for every indicator of progress, there exists a counter-argument. Basically, for everything there is a "but."

Benitez's supporters will point out that Madrid sit above Barcelona on the table in second, but his critics will point to the Catalans' tougher schedule to date. Supporters will point to key injuries as justification for indifferent form, but critics will say the squad depth is there to cover them. And it goes on. 

To some, the increased tactical awareness evident from Madrid this season is a positive; to others, it's evidence the team is being over-coached. To some, defensive improvements are indisputable; to others, they're deceiving. 

The reality is that few can be certain in their stance. To date, Real Madrid have looked magnificent and indifferent; they've blown away teams and laboured; they've convinced and left doubt. Thus far, their season is one of contradictions and caveats. 

Their progress report is as perplexing as Sunday's derby.