This season, having tested a new style of play, Madrid's "Real" disappointed during the experiment - there were coaching changes in the team and one of the biggest crises in the past decade was faced. Since his arrival at Madrid's "Real", Julen Lopetegui tried to instill a somewhat unusual style of football, based on ball control, to the team. Initially, these changes did not bring benefits, as the "whites" eventually got stuck in attack. In the first La Liga matches, Madrid's "Real" set a season record - they controlled the ball 78 percent of the time. These numbers did not drop later on - the "whites" also held the ball 77 percent of the time in the match against "Leganes". Under J. Lopetegui, Madrid's team controlled the ball on average by 65.7 percent, but when Santiago Solari arrived, it dropped to 57.2 percent. By starting to play a slightly more primitive style of football again, "Real" immediately began to demonstrate better performance in attack. While under J. Lopetegui, the average number of goals per game was 1.5, under S. Solari, the team currently scores an average of 3.75 goals. After Lopetegui's dismissal, Madrid's "Real" won four matches out of four possible. They scored five goals against Plzen's "Viktoria", four against Vigo "Celta" and "Melilla", and another two against "Real Valladolid". Under J. Lopetegui, the UEFA Champions League winners failed to score in four matches.
