Real Madrid: 3 Things Carlo Ancelotti got wrong against Villarreal

Problems in Real Madrid’s offense

Yes, the tactics were an issue too. And especially with the line-up Real was playing. I have already told the issues with the line-up, so I will now talk about the issues in the attacking tactics with the given line-up. If you would have noticed, Real Madrid was using just two ways to attack:

A)  Counter-Attacks:

Most of the counter-attacks were done when Villarreal was taking the corner. What was Real doing on the counter-attacks? It was too simple and predictable. One of Eder Militao or David Alaba would win the header and pass it to Karim Benzema who would be waiting at the edge of the box.

Karim would make the run forward till the end of Real’s half and pass it through to Vinicius who would run forward with the ball trying to escape the opposition’s defenders, but the Villarreal’s players mostly being more than equal to him. And right there, the counter-attack would fail.

B)   Crossing into the Box:

The only other offensive tactic was to take the ball wide. One of the full-backs or the wingers would cross the ball into the box. Who was their target? Karim Benzema. Except for during the set pieces, he was the only threat to the Villarreal backline during the crosses. So, it was easy for them.

Raul Albiol and Pau Torres were pretty comfortable with the crosses. If they ever struggle, they would have Rulli punching or handling the ball. So, crosses were never something to trouble Villarreal, especially without the presence of aerial threats like Luka Jovic and that is why crosses did not make much impact.

With both the tactics being predictable and easily dealt with by Villarreal, Real struggled offensively. As under Zinedine Zidane, when Real would struggle to get a breakthrough, he would tell them to shoot from long distances. But this was not what Ancelotti did. If you remember, when Eden Hazard came on, he once had a lot of clear space near Villarreal’s box to take a long shot. But, with Benzema a little ahead of him, Eden decided to pass the ball wider to one of the teammates for them to put the cross in.

Eden could have easily scored from that distance. Then why didn’t he? Was it his confidence? Or was it Ancelotti’s instructions to the Belgian to stick with the tactics? No one knows. But with the way Eden Hazard played, I don’t think he would have had a second thought about shooting from the position he was in unless Ancelotti had given some instructions.

Overall, Ancelotti made some mistakes during the game. But, it is a game to forget and focus on the upcoming game against Sherrif.