'Run and fight': a frightening statistic exposes Mourinho's contradiction

Real Madrid at the bottom of the La Liga sides

Real Madrid have a physical problem, and the numbers lay it bare. Through the first seven rounds of La Liga, no club has covered less ground per match.

Data from SofaScore, cited by AS, shows Madrid's players average 96.5 kilometres per game, the lowest figure of any team in the division. League leaders Barcelona hold a commanding edge over the Whites in this department.

Those numbers echo the message AS once attributed to José Mourinho for Florentino Pérez when he took over at the Bernabeu. Mourinho spoke of the mentality he wanted to drill into his squad: "Run and fight".

The current output tells a different story. Madrid sit rock bottom for distance covered, with Alavés, Espanyol, Barcelona and Sevilla clustered just above them.

Barcelona, by contrast, rank fifth for distance, clocking around 104.6 kilometres per match. That leaves them nearly 8.1 kilometres ahead of Real Madrid in every game.

The gap matters all the more given how the Whites have started. Six points adrift of Barcelona already, they now face a fresh physical question mark hanging over their form under Mourinho.