HOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett La Liga Atletico Madrid 1 v 0 Real Madrid After a difficult, yet victorious start to their Champions League campaign, Zinedine Zidane experienced his first Madrid derby as the coach of Real. His team lost to an Atletico Madrid that is simply satisfied to be collectively higher. Here
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Champions League AS Roma 0 v 2 Real Madrid In this match, Zinedine Zidane may have measured the road that still separates him from the great coaches. Facing a veteran, the "young" Zizou remained helpless, watching his Real Madrid side stumble over a well-organized team. It took a flash
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett La Liga Barcelona 2 v 1 Atletico Madrid This La Liga match featured a clash of wits between Barca and Atletico Madrid. Barcelona hosted a Madrid side level with them at the top of the table (48 points each). Rushed from the outset, the Catalans needed twenty minutes to
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett La Liga Real Madrid 5 v 0 Deportivo la Coruna Almost the entire world of football had their eyes on Madrid to see Zinedine Zidane on the Real bench. In what was a successful outing with a victory over La Coruna. Nevertheless, despite the score largely in
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett La Liga Celta Vigo 1 - 3 Real Madrid After exposing Barca 4-1 just a few weeks prior, Celta Vigo hosted Real Madrid for another La Liga top of the table clash. Eduardo Berizzo pushed another Spanish League behemoth to its limits. Real escaped, however, through cold realism and
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett UEFA Champions League March 22, 2015 Camp Nou Barcelona 2 - 1 Real Madrid All level at the top of La Liga just a few weeks ago, Barca did not miss the opportunity to push themselves 4 points ahead of their rivals by winning the second Clasico of
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
In the Champions League encounter between Schalke and Real Madrid, Schalke played the their usual deep 5-3-2 formation adopted by Roberto Di Matteo since he took charge earlier in the season. They normally play quite passive and only engage to press in numbers, specifically in 3v1s in the channel or when there is a good chance of a regain and particularly 2v1 against the touchline.
Schalke blocking Real Madrid’s channel attacking zone
As Kroos, Isco on the ball, Ronaldo and Marcelo are in the same strip of field. Schalke are able to control any forward passes, so Isco elects to dribble with no
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett La Liga February 7, 2015 Vicente Calderon Atletico Madrid 4 - 0 Real Madrid Real Madrid was humbled by their rival on the 22nd round of La Liga fixtures. With a defense reduced to a reserve squad due to the absences of Ramos and Pepe, Carlo Ancelotti's men
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
Real Madrid went into the European Super Cup match against Sevilla on the back of a summer of spending on big names Toni Kroos, and James Rodriguez. It will be hard for Carlo Ancelotti to balance his squad trying to accommodate Sami Khedira, Xabi Alonso and Angel Di Maria within the starting 11, but this is a task the biggest manager must face if they are to be successful. Angel Di Maria brought balance and stability to the team, and a high assist ratio, something which Mesut Ozil brought to Cristiano Ronaldo (it seems as though assists aren’t enough to stay at Real Madrid).
With the players they have, creativity and quality in the final 3rd is not in short supply.
Ronaldo goal from Bale early cross – eliminated the possibility of the full back recovery
As Ronaldo switches play to James, Bale is wide to offer an outball should James be pressed. The main aspect of this scenario is that the
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve
In the Copa Del Rey final, Real Madrid went into the game against Barcelona confident of a win, even without Cristiano Ronaldo who mass missing due to injury, but with Bale and Benzema both capable of defending from the front and causing problems on the counter attack, Ancelotti set his team up to defend against Barcelona’s main attacking areas, and exploit Madrid’s pace on the counter attack.
Madrid counter-pressing in the opening minutes
Here, we can see that Madrid, having just lost possession, are reluctant to simply drop deep and defend, instead they
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett UEFA Champions League Final Saturday, 24 May, 2014 Estadio da Luz; Lisbon, Portugal Real Madrid 4v1 Atletico Madrid The Champions League is always a very exciting competition, but this most recent campaign provided a few more edge of the seat moments than most other campaigns have given us. After
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve - Real Madrid Pressing v Atletico Madrid
As the ball is passed back, a common pressing trigger in modern football allows for pressure on the ball, and squeezing the defensive lines higher up the field. In this example, Real Madrid’s midfield and defense can
Continue readingHOW THE MATCH WAS WON by Keith Scarlett Champions League 2nd Leg (0-1 aggregate) Wednesday, 30 April, 2014 Allianz Arena Bayern 0v4 Real Madrid This is the time of the year when the going gets tough and the clubs that eventually go on to claim the honours in May, are really forced to elevate their game
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve author of, Attacking in the 4-2-3-1 (Read Part One here and Part Two here)
We have also seen Real Madrid over the last 12 months being able to stop Barcelona in La Liga, and win in the Nou Camp, and Bayern Munich destroy Barcelona 7-0 over 2 legs in the Champions League semi-final, that a totally possession based game can be beaten if you set ‘traps’ for the possession team, and win the ball when they enter specific areas of the field. Once the ball is won, the counter attacking team can then exploit the fact that they defend deeper and have more space to play in on the counter attack behind the defense and between the lines to build the attack quickly.
The trap is set by, for example, showing a certain space and leaving it open for an opponent to move into, and when the pass or dribble is made into that zone, the defense quickly ‘flood’ the zone with players, forcing a turnover of possession via an overload. From the trap, 3 or 4 player will know where and when to run, where the ball will be played and attack quickly to the opposition goal.
If we look at Borussia Dortmund, they have bought wisely in the past 2-3 years to ensure they can perform this style effectively – they have a solid back 4 in Piszczek, Hummels, Subotic and Schemmel, with 2 very effective
Continue readingBy Vasco Mota Pereira, PortuGOAL correspondent
Every once in a while my blog deviates from the analysis of a particular match's trends and incidents, focusing on a specific play or pattern from a specific team. Today we will be dissecting Gonzalo Higuaín and Mezut Özil's typical move during the match that pitted Real Madrid against Borussia Dortmund for the Champions League's semi-finals.
As always, Higuaín is often keen on leading defenders (especially direct markers) astray, clearing up space for his team-mates' penetrations through the middle. In this particular instance, it is Özil who profits from the striker's clever move.
In the first picture, Modric is shuffling the ball from one side to another, looking for the best passing option. Dortmund are apparently well positioned, with bender picking up Özil (orange) and Hummels doing the same on Higuaín (red). When Higuaín sees the Croat midfielder under no pressure, he immediately checks towards the ball, Mats Hummels marking him all the way up. Bender is under the impression that Hummels is free to pick up Özil and leaves him unmarked, with Schmelzer too far wide, ready to press Di María should he get the ball.
What happens next leaves a gaping hole right in the center of Dortmund's defense. Hummels is dragged out of position by
Continue readingBy Stevie Grieve, Author of Coaching the 4-2-3-1, Modern Soccer Tactics and Winning Soccer Tactics.
Dortmund gain a point with well worked direct play
Borussia Dortmund are Bundesliga Champions, and showed one of the reasons why against Real Madrid. They can mix their play up well and some games require a different style to win, and Jürgen Klopp decided that this game would require a solid base defensively, and a direct approach, specifically through Lewandowski using the speed of Reus, Goetze and Grossenkrautz to get the ball into dangerous positions behind the Real Madrid defence. Both goals came from this approach and all 3 players mentioned contributed to the goals.
Reus loses him marker to give Lewandowski a passing option
As Piszczek has the ball, Reus drops off to offer a pass, but as he is pressured, Reus spins behind his marker and Piszczek plays the long pass to
Continue readingBy Waleed Zaghloul.
Watching the latest Classico, I was wondering how much change will be seen from both teams based on the analysis of some vulnerabilities in a previous meeting this year (discussed in previous blogs). Some of the points analyzed back then showed two vulnerabilities for Barca, defending the counter attack specially against speedy opposition and the other was their left back. Real Madrid were overly aggressive in closing down Messi that they left other Barca player wide open at the back. Madrid were also notably losing their heads and committed very hard fouls when whatever they tried tactically did not work. Let us have a look at some instances of the latest Classico and decide for yourselves.
Asleep at the Wheel
This first image shows, in addition to the fact that this goal should very well have been called off for offside, a lack of interest from the Barcelona players. Four of the five players are off position and do not seem to be marking any of the Real players and all four are
Continue readingYears ago, a contract was a contract. If a player was in the middle of a contract with his team, he stayed there. If he wanted to leave and go elsewhere, it only happened if his team allowed it or wanted it to happen. But over time, things have gradually changed to a point where
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