Xabi Alonso has said former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo has adapted his game "perfectly" as he gets older.
Alonso, now at Bayern Munich, told Spanish radio show El Transistor the 31-year-old Portugal captain focuses on using his "intuition" to score goals.
Ronaldo has hit five goals in his last two league games to lead the scoring charts ahead of the weekend's Clasico against Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
And Alonso said he knew exactly when to arrive from wide positions to finish off moves.
"He does not want to be a centre forward, although he wants to play closer to the area," he said. "He has known how to adapt his game and has done it perfectly.
"He has that intuition to know where the ball will go, so he can be in the right place, and he scores many goals with his first touch."
Asked whether it was difficult to play alongside someone so focused on scoring goals, Alonso said: "For me, while he is scoring 50 goals a season I'm delighted to have somebody like that with me.
"He has such ambition and capacity in big moments. There are no doubts about Cristiano -- his statistics are impressive and brook no argument."
Alonso said he had been impressed by Real, now unbeaten in 31 games, adding: "They are playing with such a level of confidence and are so reliable when it comes to getting something out of games whether they play well or not.
"I see them having a sense of superiority, in the positive sense."
He said few could have predicted the impact being made by coach Zinedine Zidane, who had been assistant to Carlo Ancelotti during the 2013-14 season.
"We did not know how he would go as the head coach," he added. "And it could not have gone any better. Of course it is a bit of a surprise.
"To win the Champions League after just a few months, and now to be dominating so much -- he deserves a lot of praise, that is for sure."