This article is part of Football FanCast's The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Real Madrid had a rocky start to the 2019/20 campaign but as time has gone on, Los Blancos have improved significantly and all of that is thanks to Zinedine Zidane's ability to solve their defensive woes.

On the chalkboard

Even before the start of the ongoing 2019/20 campaign, Real already seemed doomed.

Having suffered their worst pre-season in 39 years with a total of 16 goals conceded in the span of only five games played, things were not looking good for Los Blancos.

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But now, fast forward a couple of trying months, they are sitting top of La Liga and are enjoying the view in front of both Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, who are currently second and third respectively.

And even though it's still fairly early in the new season, the Galacticos owe their recent upturn in fortunes to their greatly improved defensive record.

A steady improvement

Looking back at Real's first couple of stints in the new campaign, even though results were not really catastrophic, they simply couldn't stop leaking goals.

In the first five games played across all competitions, Real Madrid conceded nine times in total.

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Not only that, but their defensive woes were actually one of the main talking points of Zidane's squad and one of their biggest weaknesses.

But a lot has changed since then.

Now, not only are they still undefeated in La Liga but they have conceded just four goals in the last five games.

As a result, they are enjoying their place at the top of La Liga and it feels well deserved.

Now, it will be up to them and Zidane to find a way of sustaining this form and possibly even translating it into the Champions League; they have yet to win in Europe's top competition.

The start has been decent but the season is long and it's now crucial that defensive resilience is maintained.