Real Madrid: The real issue with Marco Asensio isn’t his fault
Real Madrid forward Marco Asensio entered the 2020-2021 season with high expectations, but he ended up cutting a frustrated figure throughout the campaign. He scored just seven goals with a meager two assists in all competitions despite playing 2,608 minutes. Worse yet, Asensio was invisible in some important matches, and more than half of his goals came in one hot streak.
Asensio’s future at Real will be at a crossroads if he does not improve in 2021-2022. Los Blancos are not giving up on him just yet, though I wonder if part of this commitment is out of necessity. Real Madrid have even more disappointing players they want to move, while Asensio isn’t exactly a hot commodity on the transfer market right now.
All of the understandable negativity surrounding Asensio’s first full season since his torn ACL got me thinking not just about managing expectations for him post-injury, but also about how his role at Real affects him.
We talk about positions based on the way they show up on a static formation diagram. In Asensio’s case, we often refer to him as a “right winger”. But is that so? Is Asensio a right winger in the way he plays? Ideally? We think of right wingers as players like Mohamed Salah who cut inside to score with their left or players like Jadon Sancho who create and carry the ball.
Real Madrid need to change the way they use Marco Asensio
Asensio doesn’t do either. He does not have the speed and isn’t the kind of player who likes to carry the ball with his feet. And he does not have the explosiveness to create his own shot by cutting inside.
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When Isco plays on the wing, we don’t call him a winger. We say he is playing in a “free role” and notice how he moves across the pitch, floating to do as he pleases but also cutting inside on his right when the opportunity provides.
Asensio should have had opportunities to play more in the channel and float. Lucas Vazquez and Dani Carvajal are capable, active fullbacks who love providing width to support the attack.
Luka Modric carries out defensive duties and playmakes well on the right side, and you would have thought that would have given Asensio valuable combination opportunities. And Asensio has the technical quality and crossing to deliver early balls into the box even without being the wide man.
It’s just that none of this worked out. Because Asensio was used like a traditional winger, not a “free” player or an inverted playmaker. He was thus ineffective and isolated, utilized in a way that his lack of pace and explosiveness on the ball hampered the attack. Meanwhile, his best qualities, specifically his shooting technique and eye for space in the middle of the attacking third, were rendered mostly useless to Real Madrid.
So can we fully blame Asensio for his anonymity? It is easier to spin the narrative that he “doesn’t want it”, but the truth may be more about the specifics of his role and a conflagration of the kind of “right winger” he is. Which is to say, he is a pseudo-RW. A winger in name only.
Asensio is one of those players who would thrive in a 3-5-2 as a left-sided attacking midfielder, with the ability to float around the middle of the final third and “shoot on sight”, taking up dangerous positions like, say, those in that role at Inter Milan.
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Real Madrid won’t change their formation to this, but they can use that specific position as a blueprint for the kind of role and spaces Asensio can occupy in 2021-2022. They can make this work, but by leaning on the right back and wide midfielder – especially Fede Valverde when he plays – and putting Asensio in more central roles. And eventually, this can be a role that Martin Odegaard helps fill for Real, too.
I know I have been harsh on Asensio in the past few months, and a lot of that has to do with his inability to fulfill what Real Madrid want from their wingers in a 4-3-3. If Real want to get something more out of Asensio, changing their approach is the right move. Carlo Ancelotti should help, but getting a more direct scoring threat on the left side who can take pressure off Asensio on the right could also do the Andalusian significant good.