The Intricacies of Managing Real Madrid: Substitutions
Valencia vs Real Madrid, 2-1 Defeat
You guys know I had to talk about this match. It was such a jarring game to watch. Real Madrid were a mess tactically, and they never really managed to recover completely. Then, we saw Zidane waste his substitutions in a way that made it very apparent that, for all his success in the last year, he’s still very inexperienced as far a managing goes.
Let’s start by looking at the starting XI. He put out a strong attacking team, with his usual starting XI with the exception of James Rodriguez who was playing for Gareth Bale.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great attacking formation, but we saw it fail after just 2 counterattacks. It became clear neither Toni Kroos nor Luka Modric were having a great match. Karim Benzema started off looking great but quickly saw his performance go down after the 2 goals. By the second half, he was all but invisible.
The game plan Zidane made also left the team very vulnerable to counterattacks, as Sergio Ramos doesn’t have the pace to make it back in time and Raphael Varane is still too inconsistent to depend on in those situations.
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Los Blancos managed to close the halftime scoreline gap to 2-1, and things were looking up. Sure, it seems silly to sub someone out when Real Madrid literally just scored, so he gets a pass on not subbing at halftime. But then, 20 minutes pass and it becomes clear that while Real Madrid hold possession, they’re having trouble creating chances and finishing.
The Substitutions
Zinedine Zidane made 3 substitutions in less than 15 minutes. The first 2 make sense: Gareth Bale for James Rodriguez gives him pace and chance creation on the wing, and Nacho for Varane which not only gives him a reliable center back but is also necessary due to Varane’s injury. But then he makes a change that baffled many of us, Lucas Vazquez for Luka Modric. This change doesn’t allow for a change in formation, nor does it offer stability in the midfield.
He had 2 better options on the bench. Alvaro Morata would’ve given the attack a much needed aerial advantage and better finishing, and Isco would’ve solidified the midfield and offered creativity going forward. Vasquez offered neither of those.
At the end of the day, Real Madrid were unable to come back. A lot of it can be attributed to not being able to break through Valencia’s “park the bus” play style in the second half, but Zidane also had a part in the defeat by making the wrong substitution.