Spanish Football 
/ Michael Cox / 25 September 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Fabio Coentrao's energy and pace is an asset to to Real's midfield but Jose mourinho has concerns in other areas
"In truth, they’re crying out for Nuri Sahin in the centre of the pitch. The Turk was signed from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, essentially to be a more forward-thinking partner for Alonso, whilst also bringing energy and defensive discipline to the role."
By their own incredibly high standards, Real Madrid's start to their La Liga campaign has been an average one and at the heart of their troubles is a failure to pick a system that allows them to break down teams who are too defensive against them, says Michael Cox.
A defeat and a draw in two games for Real Madrid. Far from a disaster - or is it? Real have now dropped as many points this season as Barcelona did up until February 12 last season. The race for the Spanish title is particularly unforgiving, though there are promising early signs that La Liga will be more even than last year.
Having started the season with ten goals in two games, Real's obvious failing against Levante and Racing was their inability to score. Mourinho rotated his side for these two matches and played such different starting XIs that it's difficult to come to any sweeping generalisations, especially given their goalfest in the opening two games, but the side seems to lack creativity. They managed just three shots on target against Levante, and two against Racing.
Particularly noticeable was how slowly Real moved the ball in the centre of the pitch, a huge surprise considering they'd seemingly improved on this area of their game immeasurably when they faced Barca in the European Super Cup. Xabi Alonso has played deep in midfield but his long-range diagonal balls are less effective against sides who defend deep, with their full-backs in defensive positions at all times.
His partners in the past two games have hardly covered themselves in glory either - Sami Khedira got himself sent off against Levante and was blamed for the defeat by Mourinho, whilst Lassana Diarra is simply not the type of midfielder you need to break down opponents. The energy of Fabio Coentrao, used in the centre of midfield in the first two games, suited Real better.
In truth, they're crying out for Nuri Sahin in the centre of the pitch. The Turk was signed from Borussia Dortmund in the summer, essentially to be a more forward-thinking partner for Alonso, whilst also bringing energy and defensive discipline to the role. Real basically need a good technical player who can link Alonso with the front four, and interestingly, this is a position Mourinho has struggled with before. He had Claude Makelele playing deep and Frank Lampard breaking forward at Chelsea, but couldn't decide between Tiago, Alexi Smertin, Jiri Jarosik and Joe Cole to complete his trio in his first season - the signing of Michael Essien solved the problem there. Maybe Sahin will do the same.
The slowness of the passing is harming Mesut Ozil, Real's chief creator and producer of more assists than any other La Liga player in 2010/11. Ozil is talented enough to break down packed defences, but thrives on the break - the slower the ball finds him, the more opportunity for the opposition to get their defence in shape. Similar things can be said of Cristiano Ronaldo, Angel Di Maria and arguably Karim Benzema too - they like to break quickly, and get space in behind.
Pep Guardiola described Real as 'the best counter-attacking side in the world' last season, but the problem with counter-attacking is that you need the opposition to attack first. Scared into parking the bus by Real's array of attacking stars, the rest of La Liga might have wised up and sat back.
What can Mourinho do to change things, aside from waiting on Sahin? In formation terms, he experimented with both a 4-3-3 and a 4-3-1-2 last season, but it's difficult to see how either of these shapes would help Real. He could choose to field Ozil wide in place of Di Maria, in order to play Kaka in the centre of the 4-2-3-1, therefore bringing an extra creator into the side. Kaka and Ozil are possibly too similar, though - and Kaka generally relied on quick attacks at Milan, too. Add in doubts about his lack of pace, and it's hardly a solution.
The midfield is not entirely to blame - the defenders are often slow to bring the ball out from the back, and the answer probably lies in improving the performance of his current XI on the training ground. Mourinho loves to chop and change formations, but the issue with his side concerns what they do on the ball, not how they are positioned.
At [6.0] Real remain a good price to win the Champions League - they should win the group with ease, and their style of football will probably more suited to knock-out competitions than La Liga.
Tobias Gourlay looks forward to Barcelona's clash with Atletico Madrid and explains why you probably shouldn't bother watching Sporting Gijon's game with Racing Santander...
Things haven't gone completely to plan for Barcelona and Real Madrid so far, but Michael Lintorn isn't convinced by talk of La Liga's other sides raising the bar......
Cesc Fabregas has made light of claims that he wouldn't get a look in at Barcelona this season, and in doing so has helped his push for a Spain starting spot....
No comments:
Post a Comment