Things have begun uncharacteristically for Imanol Alguacil and Real Sociedad in the opening stages of this 2024/25 La Liga campaign.
The Real Sociedad of previous years, who worked tirelessly to make Estadio San Mamés an impenetrable fortress, have vanished.
The Basque club are yet to record a single point in their opening three home matches.
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of their form is that their away record also leaves much to be desired, having recorded just four points from their first six La Liga encounters.
Despite the new season being in its infancy, Sociedad’s early season form has created a resounding feeling of negativity across the club.
Their chance of a sixth-successive top-six La Liga finish is placed under real jeopardy.
It can be theorised that this period of growing pains is heavily related to the squad overhaul that Sociedad experienced throughout the summer window.
Sociedad lost hugely influential talents who are yet to be truly replaced within Alguacil’s tactical system.
With the club seemingly looking to the future, this tactical analysis and team-focused scout report will begin to highlight some reasons why Real Socidead have stalled out the blocks this season, paying close attention to their pressing tactics and work in the final third.
However, all hope is not lost for Sociedad, as our analysis will also illuminate their promising tactical performance when hosting Real Madrid last Saturday.
Sociedad’s tactics caused large spells of frustration for the Spanish and European champions, signifying elements of positive play to build from as the season progresses.
A Summer Of Uncertainty For Real Sociedad
The summer of 2024 couldn’t have started much better for Real Sociedad, with their prized assets heavily contributing to a victorious summer over in Germany.
Real Sociedad felt proud as they had the largest proportion of players within Luis de la Fuente’s championship-winning squad, with a total of five players, even surpassing the Spanish heavyweights of Real Madrid and Barcelona.
However, two of those key performers happened to be Robin Le Normand and Mikel Merino, who saw their efforts on the international stage garner serious interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs.
Merino has since joined Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in the Premier League, while Le Normand moved to play under Diego Simeone at Atlético Madrid—two devastating departures for Alguacil to address ahead of another long and important season.
With two cornerstones of Sociedad’s success at both ends of the pitch suddenly leaving, their subsequent transfer activity failed to plug the immediate gaps within Alguacil’s effective tactical system.
Instead, the focus was placed on future-proofing their squad.
Outside of their signing of Nayef Aguerd on loan from West Ham, Sociedad’s oldest signing of the window came in the form of 23-year-old Sergio Gómez, a player desperate to showcase his unique and versatile qualities to account for the loss of one of the team’s most influential attacking contributors.
More importantly, it signifies an overarching trend towards a new youth-focused phase at Real Sociedad.
Their president even admits that the 2024/25 season presented itself as an opportunity to rewrite a new chapter in the club’s history, much to the dismay of those fans who had enjoyed a period of continued success relative to their expectations.
The €10m signing of 21-year-old Luka Sučić for RB Salzburg has looked to replace the outgoing Merino in regards to his ball progression and presence in the central areas.
Manchester City target Orri Óskarsson also became one of Real Sociedad’s marquee signings late on in the window.
At a price tag of €20m, fans will be optimistic that the Icelandic forward can help to repair the striking misfortune that has riddled Alguacil’s side for some time.
The Effectiveness Of Real Sociedad’s Pressing
One of the main features of an Imanol Alguacil Sociedad side is their incredibly high-energy pressing efforts, which have caused huge issues for some of the world’s best teams.
Their pressing identity across the past few seasons has revolved around a high press that commits a striking partnership forward to apply pressure to the opposing central defenders.
The rest of Sociedad’s midfielders can remain man-to-man and limit successful passing outlets.
We can see from the following example that Alguacil aims to negate the numerical deficiency by leaving the defender on the opposite side of the ball carrier free from pressure in the initial phase, almost inviting play to be switched across the pitch.
Such decisions are meticulously planned, as Sociedad can easily shift across should possession be switched due to the difficulty of the pass, allowing Alguacil’s team to focus more on doubling up against the opposing striker.
In the early moments of the season, Sociedad’s pressing efforts have continued their expected trends, with an average PPDA of 7.56 and a challenge intensity of 6.1.
Much has been said about Sociedad’s pressing effectiveness when playing against teams that are much more direct and risk-averse when building out from the back, potentially explaining why they have looked so vulnerable against the likes of Rayo Vallecano, Deportivo Alavés, and Mallorca.
Perhaps due to a mixture of tactical familiarity and their reluctance to press so intensely for prolonged periods, Sociedad have been unlocked by direct passes between their midfield and defensive lines, further highlighting their overall struggles.
Another huge question that has arisen in the opening stages of the season would be whether or not Sociedad’s intense press is ultimately sustainable, with damning patterns emerging when they take their foot off the gas.
There have been multiple instances this season where a significant drop in Sociedad’s PPDA coincides with a huge swing in momentum for their opposition.
Despite an average PPDA of 7.43 against Mallorca, the home side took the lead as play approached the latter stages of the first half, coincidentally the same period that saw Sociedad’s pressing efforts quantified by a PPDA total of 12.6.
We have also seen Sociedad begin the second half of games in lacklustre fashion, allowing their opposition to grow in confidence and ultimately grind out important results—with their PPDA reaching 28.0 and 24.0 between the 45th and 60th minute against Alavés and Vallecano, respectively.
A lot of this could also be attributed to their choice to operate in more of a mid-block at times, which has seen Sociedad inviting pressure and allowing their opposition to take advantage of important pockets of space to break into the final third.
Real Sociedad Fluidity In The Final Third
Another key problem for Real Sociedad is their lack of fluidity in the final third, which has put increasing pressure on their defensive consistency when relying on it for crucial points.
This has consequently caused the occurrence of uncharacteristic mistakes.
The loss of Mikel Merino as their most accomplished ball-carrier hasn’t been helped by the unfortunate injuries of both Brais Méndez and Mikel Oyarzabal, further accentuating Sociedad’s apparent lack of chemistry when attacking.
Real Sociedad still boast an impressive 57.9% average ball possession in La Liga, but unfortunately falls below the league average for several progressive metrics, indicating their ability to craft offensive opportunities efficiently.
This season, Sociedad has seen its progressive passing accuracy drop from 73% success last campaign to just 65.5% across the first six matches.
In addition, it only records 43.88 passes into the final third per 90.
Mikel Merino has been a huge loss in this regard, as Alguacil often relied on the Spaniard to support ball progression through the use of their third-man principles and unlocking space for one another to build up play through the centre.
The reality of the new-look Sociedad midfield would suggest that they subsequently lacked the necessary midfield presence to offer an imposing figure to their opposition, with a clear reluctance to progress at times in an effort to maintain possession.
When trying to make a lasting impact in the final third, Sociedad has seemingly strayed away from the counter-movement and ability to progress through the half-space that made them so dangerous at times last season.
On this occasion, we see that despite an important linkup between Becker and Gómez coming in off the left flank, the Spaniard was unable to accurately predict Becker’s penetrative run behind the Alavés defence, forcing Sociedad’s progression to retreat back towards the halfway line.
A Beacon Of Hope
Funnily enough, Real Sociedad’s most promising performance was against their toughest opponent by far, as they frustrated Ancelotti’s Real Madrid side for the majority of their match.
Their high-pressing was much more fruitful against a Madrid team that looked to build out from the back consistently.
They often forced Rüdiger into hopeful passes with his weaker left foot, which in turn allowed Sociedad to create numerous high turnovers and efforts on target.
Sociedad looked much more dangerous in possession, and a huge reason for that would have to be the space that Martín Zubimendi had at the base of their midfield.
Madrid’s striking partnership of Mbappé and Vinicius lacked defensive contributions, which allowed Zubimendi much more space to operate and progress into Madrid’s half.
The Spaniard completed the most progressive passes in the whole match (27).
Sociedad were even able to adapt on the fly when Valverde would press higher to deny Zubimendi time on the ball, with Sucic importantly dropping deeper to not only offer an important passing outlet but also to draw defensive attention away from Sociedad’s key attacking threat in the number ten role.
Takefusa Kubo was deployed in the central attacking midfield role against Madrid.
The Japanese winger looked much more prosperous with time to receive the ball and drive into space ahead of the Madrid defensive line.
It resulted in Kubo having a match-leading eight progressive carries and a total expected threat of 0.43xT, outdoing some of European football’s most effective attacking players.
Luka Sucic showed impressive glimpses of the type of midfielder Sociedad aimed to sign when replacing the outgoing Mikel Merino.
The Croatian emulated his predecessor’s important box-crashing runs to create huge chances in and around the penalty area.
Ultimately, for Sociedad, the inevitability of Real Madrid and their three key chances, which cannoned back off the woodwork, allowed the Spanish champions to emerge with all three points.
Conclusion
When it comes to the future of the 2024/25 season for Real Sociedad, talks of relegation are far too premature for a side with such quality and a history of success.
But it would appear as though their dreams of another European qualification spot are dwindling fast unless they can rectify their form and experience a collective period of cohesion with all their new additions.
Imanol Aguacil has been a heavily praised manager over the past few seasons because of his tactical innovation, but will he be able to steady the ship having once again lost some of their most prized assets?
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