Real Madrid: What we learnt from games against Sevilla and Girona
By Yasheel Vyas
Real Madrid won 4-2 against a Girona side who rested some of its best players at the Santiago Bernabéu on Thursday night in the Copa del Rey. The team picked up from where they left against Sevilla last weekend and played with high intensity throughout the 90 minutes as Sergio Ramos led from the front with two great goals.
Vinícius was running the show on the left wing causing all sorts of chaos in the Girona’s box and quite rightly earning a penalty. Karim Benzema was on top form, his linkup play and ability to hold the ball under pressure helped in creating a lot chances and he capped it off with a well deserved goal.
Real Madrid is finally playing the way they are expected to and seems like they somehow always turn things around when it comes to the business end of the season.
Solari finally has his tactical plan being executed to near perfection on the pitch. Los Blancos have won convincingly against Sevilla and Girona at the Bernabéu while playing some beautiful free-flowing football.
It seemed like Solari had lost the plot after coming back from the FIFA Club World Cup when the team lost to Real Sociedad at home. The alarm bells were ringing and the team hosted a panic meeting behind closed doors the very next day.
Players and the coach discussed issues and according to Marca, Marcelo admitted he has been below par and took a backseat until he was back in the swing of things. The result of which we see Sergio Reguilon, who was promoted from Castilla team this season, starting in the league games while Marcelo sits on the bench despite being fit.
So, what are the changes Solari has made that has resulted in this upsurge of form?
The main reason behind the whole uptick in form and better results has been because of the counter press. Though the sample size is still small to say Solari will go on with these tactics every game, it has been the major factor behind the recent success.
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As soon as Real loses the ball, instead of utilizing the back press, the player closest to the opposing player hounds him while others try to cut out the passing lanes forcing the opposition to either pass back or to lose the ball.
The best example of this was Luka Modric’s goal against Sevilla. He pressed Ever Banega who was looking to pass back towards his goalkeeper and lost the ball to Luka Modric, leading to a one on one with the keeper.
The high press can help create a lot of chances like these when you force the opposition into mistakes in dangerous areas. This counter press is something which peaked under former manager Zinedine Zidane in the 2016/2017 season when Madrid ended up winning the double.
The numerous comebacks were not a fluke but a result of this high octane counter press that had teams begging to even get a sniff of the ball. The game against Villarreal when the team was down two goals and went on to win 3-2 , the whole second half, Villarreal was rattled and Madrid was hitting them with waves after waves of attack.
The classic example of this strategy working was the Champions League Final in Cardiff against Juventus. In a clip released by Real Madrid of the halftime team talk, we could clearly see Zidane instructing players to stay close and press high together.
Juventus was totally outplayed in the second half and created nothing despite a 1-1 scoreline at the break. This counter press was missed a lot last season as Madrid kept on conceding goals on counters leading to several unneccsary loses.
If Solari can keep this going until the end of the season, there’s a chance the club may at least finish second in the league, make a deep run in the Champions League, and hopefully get their hands back on the Copa del Rey for the first time since 2014.
When Cristiano Ronaldo left, not only were his goals taken away, but also the volume of shots he produced went away with him. Real Madrid has been shooting a lot less this season and even more so with Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio injured.
The last two games looks like Solari has asked the team to shoot a lot more be it from any distance and we’ve seen Dani Ceballos and Casemiro shooting from distance and even Modric trying his luck a number of times.
Next. Real Madrid was the highest earning club in the world for the 2017/2018 season. dark
Another big reason for Real Madrid’s recent success has been Modric finally getting over the World Cup hangover. He is finally back to his best form which helped him win the Ballon d’Or.
The individual players finding their form – specially Vinícius – has been a big positive to the side with his unpredictability which was missing in the attack and certainly Álvaro Odriozola has been immense. Vinícius already has five assists in the Copa del Rey, making him the top assist maker of the competition, followed by Odriozola who has four.
Things are only going to get better with time as the injured players come back to the team and hopefully Real end up with some sort of silverware at the end of the season.