Real Madrid: 3 ways Zinedine Zidane transformed the defense

Minor tweaks in the system on a whole

The defensive transformation wasn’t achieved simply by replacing the left flank. There were some more tactical tweaks made by Zidane, a manager who’s supposed to be more of a man-manager than a tactician. And these tactical tweaks made Real Madrid rock solid in defence.

Zidane;’s Real Madrid was mainly a possession-based side with a slow buildup and wing play, and there were risks of being beaten on the counter after losing the ball, due to some players overcommitting in the attack. Zidane realised the danger of being cut down with a single pass on the break.

So he started to implement a counter-pressing tactic, which involved players getting into ball-winning positions after losing the ball. Someone like Casemiro or Fede Valverde would aggressively press the attacker and successfully attempt a tackle the opponent to win the ball immediately, while other players would block the passing lanes, setting themselves up to intercept the ball.

The counter-pressing scheme wasn’t highly successful, but in some games it was successful. Marco Asensio’s goal against Eibar was one such example of a successful counter-press with Madrid launching their attack after Casemiro winning the ball with a successful interception, and then quickly releasing Asensio past the defensive line.

Against teams that love to play with the ball at their feet, Casemiro would drop deep and form a back three with the center-backs at times, though he would still be making the runs into the box while attacking. Since winning the balls requires better pressure from the players, Zidane preferred to use runners like Fede Valverde, Vinicius Jr and Lucas Vazquez, who are players with a high work rate. Even a 35-year-old Luka Modric would keep running for 90 minutes, to meet the demands of the modern game.

Another tweak made by Zidane included cutting down space on the field. Real Madrid has often been criticised for their casual approach to defending, with them switching off and allowing the opponent to play in their half with ease. This changed under Zidane, who demanded a little bit more compactness from his defensive lines that cut out space. This compactness also came with a lot of team effort, with a visible synchronization among defenders. That synchronization is something clearly visible whenever the team deploys an offside trap.

The wingers would drop deep to support their fullbacks defensively, and in big games like the El Clasico, we can often see the wingers form a back six by joining the back four, which enabled them to cut down space on the wings and block crosses with relative ease. In 2019/20, Zidane also used the tactic of suffocating teams that like to build their play from their goalkeeper, and he successfully implemented that against Barcelona who couldn’t score a single goal against Real Madrid in 2019/20.

With these minor tactical tweaks, Zidane was able to achieve the defensive transformation at Real Madrid. But he also applied some more little mental tricks of his to achieve the change completely.