Who is Real Madrid’s best free-kick taker? At this point in the 2021-2022 season, the answer is becoming increasingly obvious to Madridistas.
When any team finds it hard to break through a disciplined opposition that is playing with a solid defensive structure and a proper pressing system, they have to find different ways to break the deadlock. It requires an extra bit of quality from the players, or even a slice of luck. In such tough situations, set pieces seem like golden opportunities for a team.
Free kicks are the toughest form of set-pieces and they demand some additional quality from the players to convert them. But if teams are able to capitalise on free kicks, teams might get a valuable lead against the run of play.
Yesterday, we saw a similar instance, as we broke the deadlock with a moment of quality (and luck) from David Alaba, as the Austrian opened the scoring with a deflected free-kick against a spirited FC Sheriff Tiraspol. The goal has once again reminded us of the importance of free kicks, as the free-kick goal set the tone for the remainder of the match.
Alaba’s goal also gave us an answer to the popular question of who should take the free-kicks for Real Madrid. Because the team hasn’t been good at converting free kicks, and it has been an issue for a long time.
Real Madrid have been poor at free-kicks for a while now
The club never had a problem with free-kick taking, as long as Cristiano Ronaldo was there at the club. The Portuguese had a reputation for his knuckleball free kicks before coming to Madrid, and he did entertain the audience in the Bernabeu with his extraordinary skill, scoring a total of 32 free kicks in his nine years with Los Blancos. He had scored them at crucial junctures as well, proving why he was the number one set-piece taker for the club.
But ever since the Portuguese left the club, there hasn’t been a clear free-kick taker for the club. And even when Ronaldo was there, there was a clear dip in his free-kick-taking ability at the end of his Real Madrid career, compared to his prime. Post-Ronaldo, a lot of players tried their hand at free-kicks.
Being the captains on the field, Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema took it on themselves, and Ramos had even scored a beautiful one against RCD Mallorca in June 2020. The midfielders with finesse, Toni Kroos, and Isco, tried a few short free kicks, while Casemiro had also attempted them with his technique that was based on power. Being left-footers, Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio had also tried the free-kicks that favoured their preferred foot and shooting style. It was difficult to predict who will be taking a free-kick. Predicting the outcome of the rock-paper-scissor battle for free-kicks, between Franck Ribery and Toni Kroos, was way easier.
In spite of having so many players attempt free-kicks, Real Madrid could score only one free-kick per year from 2018 to 2020. Only in 2021 have we seen two free-kick goals, with the other one being Toni Kroos’ El Clasico strike in April this year. And before yesterday’s goal, the last free-kick Real Madrid had scored in the Champions League was way back in September 2018, when Isco scored a chipped free-kick against Roma to open the scoring.
Scoring a goal is more important than the way a team gets that goal. But the lack of quality did hurt Real Madrid at some point or the other when you consider the fact that the team’s direct rivals FC Barcelona won a handful of games thanks to the world-class free-kick taker in Lionel Messi. The team had to improve the conversion rate, and above all, the team needed to have a fixed free-kick taker.
But now the team has an exceptional free-kick taker in David Alaba
Agreed that the free-kick goal against Sheriff was out of luck, but it was a well-struck free-kick from David Alaba nonetheless. It gave us an idea of the Austrian’s excellent technique and made a lot of us realise that he is indeed the team’s best free-kick taker.
Technique-wise, he is absolutely brilliant. Though he is a left-footed player, he can score them from angles that are suitable for right-footed players as well. His body gets into an excellent position, and he shoots the ball with the perfect pace and finesse. There are other great free-kick takers in the team, but I doubt if anyone comes so close to Alaba in free-kicks, except for Toni Kroos, who might be the second-best.
And reputation-wise, Alaba is a proven free-kick taker. According to MARCA, David Alaba has scored a total of 11 free-kicks in his career, which is more than the combined number of free-kicks scored by everyone else in their careers. If you want to know more about Alaba’s set-piece ability, have a look at this video, which will make it further obvious that Alaba is the best free-kick taker in Real Madrid. I would like to conclude this article with just one more sentence. We signed David Alaba on a free transfer.