2026/2027 season

La Liga

Team page
La Liga · Team page
Real Sociedad
Head coach: Pellegrino Matarazzo · Hybride 4-4-2 / 4-2-3-1
Rank
6th
Pts
13
P
8
Form
🟢 Good

The essentials at a glance

The summary of this page: estimated level of play, form trend and qualitative verdict. For the details, head to the other tabs.

Editors' ratings
7/10
Attack
4/10
Defence
7/10
Form
5/10
Confidence / mood
Current risk:High

6th with 13 pts from 8 matches: 4 wins, 1 draw, 3 defeats.

12 goals scored, 15 conceded.

The Danish had been out of Diego Pablo Simeone's plans in the last few weeks after Johnny Cardoso shone in the encounter against the Royal Society coming out from the bench. & nbsp;

Mundo Deportivo · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The Royal Society is back on the scene. The set led by Pellegrino Matarazzo today faces a new envoy at a stadium that missed the First Division.

Mundo Deportivo · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

The Real's technician warns that the Málaga will be a very complicated rival, even though its position in the classification and its poor scorer balance can indicate otherwise

Marca · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

Johaneko played the Basque final against the Real, had a great party on the left and wanted to see those moments and actions today with his speed and determination in one against one, both in attack and in defense. And as for Hugo and Jesus, both are very similar players and with a very similar level.

Mundo Deportivo · 17 Oct 2026 · machine-translated

How the team has played recently

Match-by-match results, record and rhythm of the current season.

Latest matches
Wvs RC Deportivo La Coruña (H) · 3-2
Wvs Valencia CF (A) · 3-2
Lvs Club Atlético de Madrid (H) · 0-3
Wvs Elche CF (A) · 3-2
Dvs RC Celta de Vigo (H) · 0-0
WWWWDLLL
12 scored / 15 conceded over 8 matches played
Rest: 7 days since the last match · 1 match played in the last 15 days
Home form
2W - 1D - 1L
Away form
2W - 0D - 2L
Statistics

Computed from this season's scores, every time the page is shown.

Goals scored per match
1.8
Goals conceded per match
1.8
At home
3 scored · 5 conceded in 3 matches
Away
6 scored · 4 conceded in 2 matches
Over 2.5 goals
4 of 5
Both teams score
3 of 5
Clean sheets
1 of 5
Failed to score
2 of 5
Cumulative points vs league average

Not enough matchdays recorded yet for this curve — history builds up with every standings refresh.

How Real Sociedad play

System, playing identity, and what sets the team apart at both ends of the pitch.

Playing identity
Preferred system
Hybride 4-4-2 / 4-2-3-1
Philosophy
Matarazzo has opted for a back four, without reverting to three centre-backs for now, with a hybrid set-up that switches from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1 depending on the opponent (El Desmarque, 02/08/2026).
Attacking strengths
3 goals in 3 matchdays, all scored in the only win (2-1 against Espanyol on 29/08, Barrenetxea and Óskarsson, two assists from Oyarzabal); 17 shots attempted that day against 11 for Espanyol.
Defensive solidity
6 goals conceded in 3 matches, in keeping with a 2025-26 campaign of 61 goals conceded, the club's worst total since 2010-11 (Betfair).
Pressing
Not reliably documented by the sources consulted as of this date.
Transitions
Not reliably documented by the sources consulted as of this date.
StrengthA quality core retained (Oyarzabal, Kubo, Sučić, Barrenetxea, Óskarsson, Remiro) and an Anoeta crowd that answered the call (31,884 spectators on 29/08) to get the season up and running.
WeaknessPersistent defensive fragility, an almost total absence of summer recruitment and two opening defeats away from home (Benito Villamarín then Bernabéu).

The mood around the club, and who is missing

Internal climate, relationship with the supporters, and known absences before the next match.

Mood
Squad confidence
Slightly up, but still unstable. The 2-1 win against Espanyol in front of 31,884 spectators ended two opening defeats at the Benito Villamarín and then the Bernabéu, without erasing the six goals conceded in three matchdays. The club above all has a more favourable context: three arrivals were finally registered, including Héctor Fort at the right-back position identified as a priority since May. The schedule hardens immediately, with a matchday 6 fixture brought forward to this Thursday, Elche on the 7th and Atlético on the 13th. Álex Remiro's possible return in goal, a week after his shoulder injury, would be a further relief.
Coach / players / board relationship
Still under financial constraint, but less blocked than in August. The sporting directors had made any recruitment conditional on sales, which had left the club setting a record for inactivity by announcing no signing as of 3 August. The end of the window put that right with Chelsea's loan of Sarr on 28 August, then Héctor Fort's transfer and Jon Martín's promotion from Real Sociedad B on 1 September. Pellegrino Matarazzo therefore finally has a specialist right-back and a wider rotation. No public friction between the head coach and his board has been reported.
Mood with the supporters
Anoeta turned out for the season's first win, with 31,884 spectators against Espanyol, and welcomes the team back as early as Thursday for a matchday 6 fixture brought forward against Celta. The summer's inactivity had caused deep irritation, to the point that the Basque press counted the days without a signing; Héctor Fort's arrival from Barça and Jon Martín's promotion calmed the debate without closing it. The real cause for enthusiasm lies elsewhere: the Real are back in the Europa League, with Bournemouth at Anoeta on 17 September, and then trips to Brussels and Norway. That European schedule is also why the crowd is turning out on a Thursday night in September. The mood remains demanding but supportive.
Pressure on the head coach
Moderate. Pellegrino Matarazzo has earned a reprieve with the win against Espanyol, but remains under scrutiny after a 2025-26 season with 61 goals conceded, the club's worst total since 2010-11. His sending-off on 29 August, along with his assistant Omer Toprak, added noise without triggering any question over his position. The head coach now has a slightly more complete squad and a clearer context, but he has to manage four matches in seventeen days across LaLiga and the Europa League. A poor run over that sequence would immediately revive the questions.
Club objectives
No official numerical objective was found for 2026-27, but the roadmap is clear: holding a European standing across four competitions after searching since May for a centre-back, a right-back and a winger. The right-back position was finally filled on 1 September with Héctor Fort. The Europa League, with Bournemouth, Union Saint-Gilloise and Lillestrøm on October's schedule, is an objective in its own right and is already forcing calendar adjustments. The short-term priority remains defensive solidity, six goals conceded in three matchdays extending last season's difficulties.
Recent internal tensions
No internal tension reported. The only public friction remains refereeing, after the dismissals of Matarazzo and his assistant Omer Toprak on 29 August, in a confused finish linked to the application of the rule requiring a player treated on the pitch to leave it for a minute. The summer's fiercest debate concerned the club's inactivity in the market; it has partly died down with the three late registrations. A question remains over Álex Remiro's condition, announced as a probable starter against Celta only a week after his shoulder injury. Jon Pacheco, for his part, is left out by selection choice, a situation to watch.
Absences
InjuredÁlvaro Odriozola — Cruciate ligament rupture; still listed among the absentees in VAVEL's preview of 2 Sep 2026, with a return hoped for at the start of November 2026.
InjuredPablo Marín — Long-term muscle injury; still unavailable according to VAVEL's preview of 2 Sep 2026.
DoubtfulMikel Oyarzabal — Announced as doubtful for the brought-forward match against Celta by VAVEL's preview of 2 Sep 2026; he had provided two assists against Espanyol on 29 Aug.
BackÁlex Remiro — Announced as a probable starter against Celta on 2 Sep 2026 despite the shoulder injury sustained on 29 Aug against Espanyol, with Marrero the alternative in the event of a relapse.

Before kick-off

What to know before the next match: statistical form, qualitative analysis, and a computed estimate of the 1/X/2 probabilities.

Next match

Málaga CF — Real Sociedad

AwaySunday 18 October at 18:30Matchday 9
It's today. Kick-off time confirmed by the league. Paris time · football-data.org fixtures.

Prediction, odds and form of both teams →

What the press says
  • Examen de jerarquía para la Real Sociedad ante un Málaga colista y en horas bajasThis doesn't stop. The Royal Society is back on the scene. The set led by Pellegrino Matarazzo today faces a new envoy at a stadium that missed the First Division. The Málaga welcomes the Royal Society at 18: 30 in a duel between two mythical squads of the highest category of Spanish football, which arrive in dynamics totally contrary to an encounter with a favorite, although with many more kilometers on the legs for the football players of the set txuri urdin.Mundo Deportivo · 18 Oct 2026 · machine-translated
Prediction
EstimateMálaga CF — Real Sociedad
33 %
1 · Málaga CF
25 %
X · draw
42 %
2 · Real Sociedad
In-house calculation, from this page's standings data alone: 8 matches played by Málaga CF, 8 matches by Real Sociedad. Confidence: fair
The formula, in plain words — with this match's figures
  1. League average. 238 goals scored over 159 team-matches played (19 teams taken into account), i.e. μ = 1.50 goal scored per team per match. This is the reference point: everything that follows is expressed relative to it.
  2. Attacking and defensive strengths. Goals scored (or conceded) per match, divided by μ. 1.00 = exactly average; in defence, above 1.00 means “concedes more than average”.
    TeamGoalsRawKept
    Málaga CF — attack4 in 8 matches0.330.62
    Málaga CF — defence13 in 8 matches1.091.05
    Real Sociedad — attack12 in 8 matches1.001.00
    Real Sociedad — defence15 in 8 matches1.251.14
    The “Kept” column is the result of shrinkage towards the mean: weight = P / (P + 6), i.e. 0.57 for Málaga CF and 0.57 for Real Sociedad. The rest of the weight goes to the league average. This is what stops a lone 5-0 from producing an attack at 3.3 times the average — and hence a 95% probability.
  3. Home advantage (γ). Measured on the league itself: 1.76 goal scored on average by the host against 1.38 by the visitor, over the 45 fixtures present in each team's last 5 matches. Raw ratio 1.27; shrunk towards 1 (weight 0.43, on the log of the ratio) then capped at 1.25 → γ = 1.11. Shrinkage goes towards 1, i.e. no advantage at all: while the sample is small, the model does not assert a home advantage it cannot measure.
  4. Venue correction, specific to each team. Drawn from the home/away split: points per match at the venue concerned are compared to points per match over all fixtures, with stronger shrinkage (weight = P / (P + 8)) and a bound of ±12%.
    Málaga CF at home: 0.75 pts/match versus 0.50 overall over 4 matches → ×1.120
    Real Sociedad away: 1.50 pts/match versus 1.63 overall over 4 matches → ×0.974
  5. Expected goals. One side's attack is set against the other's defence. γ applies to the host only: applying it the other way round too would count the home advantage twice.
    λMálaga CF = 1.50 × 0.62 × 1.14 × 1.11 × 1.120 = 1.32
    λReal Sociedad = 1.50 × 1.00 × 1.05 × 0.974 = 1.53
  6. Poisson grid. Probability of every exact score from 0-0 to 8-8, assuming the two goal totals are independent, then adding up the cells: home win 32.8%, draw 24.9%, away win 42.4% — displayed rounded to whole numbers so that they add up to exactly 100. Most likely exact score in the grid: 1-1 (only 11.7%, which says enough about how unpredictable an exact score is).
Limits of this model — they are not anecdotal.
  • It only knows goals and a venue. Neither absences, suspensions, line-ups, fatigue, stakes, weather nor club context enter the calculation — while the other tabs of this page show that they matter.
  • The assumption that the two goal totals are independent is false in reality: it slightly underestimates tight scores, hence the draw.
  • γ is measured over a rolling window (each team's last 5 matches), not over the whole season.
  • The shrinkage constants (6, 60, 8) and the bounds are choices, not measurements. They were tuned to be cautious early in the season; they were not calibrated on a results history, as none is available here.
  • No after-the-fact evaluation has been made: at this stage, nobody knows whether this model is better or worse calibrated than another.
What other sources say
No external source has been collected for this match. That is the normal state: readings are taken by hand, and an empty box is better than an unverified figure.
This block shows probability estimates, not predictions, and carries no advisory value. The in-house estimate is the result of a formula applied to a small sample; the figures from external sources are reproduced as they were collected, without their method having been verified.

The full squad

The professional squad by position, captain marked with an armband.

Goalkeepers
  • Álex Remiro
  • Unai Marrero
  • Aitor Fraga
Defenders
  • Jon Aramburu
  • Igor Zubeldia
  • Jon Martín
  • Jon Pacheco
  • Sergio Gómez
  • Aihen Muñoz
  • Álvaro Odriozola
  • Javi López
  • Mamadou Sarr
Midfielders
  • Beñat Turrientes
  • Jon Gorrotxategi
  • Carlos Soler
  • Luka Sučić
  • Pablo Marín
  • Yangel Herrera
  • Arsen Zakharyan
  • Takefusa Kubo
  • Ander Barrenetxea
Forwards
  • Mikel OyarzabalC
  • Orri Steinn Óskarsson
  • Gonçalo Guedes
  • Jon Karrikaburu
This team's current captain could not be confirmed with certainty at the last check — no armband is shown above until the information is reliable.
Squad last verified on 31 Aug 2026 — source: Fichajes.com 2026/27 squad list cross-checked with Betfair's squad analysis (06/08/2026) and the typical starting XI published by El Desmarque (02/08/2026); the breakdown by position varies between sources..

What has been said recently

Chronological feed of verified information about the club.

rss18 Oct 2026
Real Sociedad - Barça, live
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss18 Oct 2026
Trial of hierarchy for the Royal Society before a colist Malaga and at low hours
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss17 Oct 2026
The Real already has the first and early threat of suspension
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss17 Oct 2026
Real Sociedad B - Almería, live
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss17 Oct 2026
Luis Bestard, an unpublished referee for the Royal Society and Talisman for the Málaga
Source: Mundo Deportivo
rss17 Oct 2026
Three football players from the house rebel and claim in the Royal Society
Source: Mundo Deportivo
European competition3 Sep 2026
The club's European schedule is set: the Real host Bournemouth on 17 September in the Europa League league phase, travel to Union Saint-Gilloise on 15 October and then to Lillestrøm on 22 October. It is that commitment that led to LaLiga matchday 6 being brought forward to 3 September.
Source: LaLiga (site officiel)
Club2 Sep 2026
The Real play a matchday 6 fixture brought forward to Thursday 3 September at Anoeta against Celta, rescheduled because of their European commitment; they go into it on the back of their first win of the season, 2-1 against Espanyol, against opponents who have taken only one point from three matchdays.
Source: VAVEL
Transfers1 Sep 2026
Full-back Héctor Fort, transferred from FC Barcelona, is among the very last registrations validated by LaLiga at 20:00 on 1 September, along with Iván Azón (Getafe) and André Almeida (Racing): he fills the right-back position identified as a priority as early as May.
Source: Infobae (dépêche EFE)
Transfers1 Sep 2026
Three arrivals were finally registered late in the window: Héctor Fort on 1 September, Jon Martín's promotion from Real Sociedad B the same day, and Chelsea's loan of Sarr on 28 August — a summer far more active than August's inactivity suggested.
Source: LaLiga (site officiel)
Transfers1 Sep 2026
A very quiet window in San Sebastián: Kazunari Kita's arrival is the main move registered by the Basque club.
Source: El Pespunte
Result31 Aug 2026
A 2-1 win against Espanyol on matchday 3, a success that follows the heavy 4-1 defeat at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Source: Unánimo Deportes
Other29 Aug 2026
Chaotic end to the match in Real Sociedad-Espanyol (2-1): after Álex Remiro's shoulder injury, referee Orellana Cid applied the new rule requiring a player treated on the pitch to leave it for one minute, which led to Igor Zubeldia going off and then to the sending-off of Matarazzo and his assistant Omer Toprak.
Source: El Desmarque
Head coach29 Aug 2026
Matarazzo explained his sending-off by saying he was “in a state of shock” and that there had been “no prior communication” from the referee; the actual sanction remained dependent on the contents of the match report.
Source: FútbolFantasy
Other29 Aug 2026
First win of the season at Anoeta (2-1 against Espanyol) in front of 31,884 spectators, after the defeats at the Benito Villamarín and the Santiago Bernabéu; goals from Barrenetxea (3rd minute) and Óskarsson (62nd).
Source: La Patilla
Institutional3 Aug 2026
Real Sociedad broke a 15-year-old record by still having announced no signing as of 3 August; the club was then looking for a centre-back, a midfielder and possibly a forward, after missing out on Julian Brandt, who left for Ajax.
Source: El Desmarque
News last verified on 18 Oct 2026. Sources: sports press (L'Équipe, Le Parisien, Foot Mercato, regional press…) and official club websites — see the link on each item.
Editorial content (playing style, mood, absences, external prediction sources) last verified on 3 Sep 2026. The standings/form data above are refreshed automatically — as is the 1/X/2 estimate, recomputed on every view.