⚽️ Two Premier League defenders will be key to Real Madrid’s progress next season
My Week in Sport(s) ⚽️ 🏒 🏉 🎾 🏏
Welcome to My Week in Sport(s) — a regular newsletter from Plot the Ball.
Covered in this edition: ⚽️ Real Madrid, 🏒 Connor McDavid, 🏉 Jorja Miller, 🎾 Carlos Alcaraz and 🏏 Mayank Yadav.
⚽️ Two Premier League defenders will be key to Real Madrid’s progress next season
How will Xabi Alonso set Real Madrid up on the field? The Spanish coach — about to take over at the club — featured briefly here last week. While it’s possible to make out some of his basic principles, how he will apply them to La Liga remains rather unclear.
At this point, it’s really the wrong question to be asking. Managers are often keen to deflect attention from themselves to their players, anyway — and there’s much more meaningful signal in who Madrid have already targeted in the transfer market. Their two biggest deals so far — one officially confirmed, and one as good as — share some interesting characteristics. So, instead, let’s ask: what do Bournemouth centre back Dean Huijsen and Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold have in common?
The answer is straightforward: they’re both excellent at moving the ball upfield from deeper positions on the pitch. Trent’s passing ability is known and lauded; he has averaged 8.8 progressive passes per 90 minutes in the Premier League this season, while typical wide defenders have completed around three. Huijsen is lesser-known, but also separates himself in this area: only two central defenders made progressive carries more often than he did — and only four completed more progressive passes.
It’s worth noting here, too, that Álvaro Carreras — Madrid’s reported target for the left-back position — also possesses a similar skillset. (Among Benfica regulars this season, he completed the second-most progressive passes and most progressive carries.) There’s a clear theme to the club’s recruitment, then. And it might reflect the fact that — despite finally securing the signature of Kylian Mbappé — the club apparently feels it could have handled last summer’s transfer window better.
The Athletic has reported that sources inside Madrid now think that the loss of Toni Kroos — their most frequent progressive passer in 2023-24 — from their midfield “weighed far more heavily than they expected at the time”. After a rocky first season with Mbappé, Alonso will likely be judged on whether he can make the club’s unbalanced forward line tick. With their activity so far this summer, though, Madrid will hope they’ve made it much easier for the ball to reach them in the first place.
🏒 Connor McDavid can’t find the back of the net in the playoffs — but it’s not for a lack of effort
I probably spend more time thinking about Connor McDavid’s 2022-23 NHL season than is advisable. How top athletes adapt their approaches as their careers progress fascinates me, though — and that historic campaign is a great example.
McDavid is primarily an elite creator for others; among the 11 active players with 1,000 or more points, assists make up a higher share of the total of only two others. In 2022, however, he decided to start raining down shots on the opposition goal — mainly on the power play — and scored 64 goals in 82 regular-season games that season. (Over the rest of his career, he’s averaged 38.7 goals per 82 games.) His shot volume has picked up again in the 2024-25 postseason — this time, in even-strength situations.
Crucially, though, the goals haven’t followed: he’s scored only three goals on 7.3 expected goals so far this postseason, according to Evolving Hockey. (This includes shots that miss the net; the table above excludes them.) That the Edmonton Oilers are four wins away from another trip to the Stanley Cup Finals while McDavid is on such a cold streak should be a bit unsettling for their current opponents. The Dallas Stars will be hoping they can find three more wins themselves before his fortunes start to turn.
What else I learned last week
🏉 Kiwi Jorja Miller will have to fight hard to stand out in 15-a-side rugby
Jorja Miller and Maddison Levi will be going head to head in rugby sevens for years. Australian star Levi stands out because of her size; New Zealand’s Miller, though, will be aware of her relative lack of it as she temporarily transitions to the 15-a-side game.
She’s currently trialling for the Black Ferns as a back-row forward. Miller has played the position in domestic rugby in the past, but brings a different frame and skillset to the role compared to other international back-rowers. 14 players have started at the position in this year’s Pacific Four series — and only one is shorter than her listed height of 1.67m. Australia veteran Ashley Marsters stands at 1.65m; as an occasional front-row forward, though, she’s a very different sort of hybrid athlete to Miller.
🎾 Carlos Alcaraz cranked up his forehand to beat Sinner in Rome
What makes Carlos Alcaraz such an effective clay-court player? One important component of his game on the surface was on display as he defeated Jannik Sinner — just back from a WADA suspension — in the final of the Rome Masters last week.
The more top spin a player can impart on the ball, the higher it bounces — and the more difficult it is to return. In the first set against Sinner, per Tennis Insights, Alcaraz was able to hit his forehand with 25% more spin than the ATP average. How does this compare to legend of clay, Rafael Nadal? Spin data is not widely available, but there are snippets online: during the 2020 French Open, for instance, Rafa’s average rate of forehand top spin was a couple of percentage points lower than Alcaraz’s on Sunday.
🏏 India’s Mayank Yadav wasn’t at full tilt in 2025 — even before injury
The IPL has resumed after an unscheduled break, but exciting fast bowler Mayank Yadav’s campaign is already over due to injury. We’ve been here before: his 2024 season was also cut short — and his 2025 started late — because of physical issues.
Like Roki Sasaki — the Japanese pitcher who featured last week — Yadav’s inability to sustain his usual speed when (apparently) fit to play is almost as concerning as his time on the sidelines. He bowled 41 ‘pace-on’ deliveries in the 2025 IPL, at a median speed of 86 mph; in 2024, the equivalent figure was 91 mph. To try and compensate, 23% of his deliveries this year were ‘pace-off’ variations — up from just 5% last year. Without elite pace, though, his path to becoming a top bowler is much more fraught.
The next edition of My Week in Sport(s) will be published in two weeks, on Friday June 6th.
