Real’s dilemma of the defense and midfield
By: Steve | September 29th, 2007Hala Madrid! I’m assuming this to be true, but please correct me if not: reader Gonzalo maintains his own blog about Real Madrid called All In White, which I figure to be only the other English-language blog about Los Merengues. It’s chockful of great analysis and posts, not least because he can actually read and understand Spanish and hence the local sporting newspapers.
I want to draw attention to one particular post because it’s relevant to our recent discussions within several comment threads about the quality of Madrid’s defense, particularly the centrebacks and Fabio Cannavaro. Gonzalo translates a piece from El Pais on the ever-present dilemma between playing attacking football and defending well.
It seems that even during the days of Hierro and Redondo, there was an argument about how far back the central defenders should play. Too far forward and while you maintain a tighter formation for keeping possession, there’s reams of space to defend against the counterattack. Too far back and opponents can exploit the space between the back four and the midfield, though the keeper would at least have some help.
I do remember that after Schuster was hired, he said one of the things he wanted to do was to get the defenders further up the pitch, in order to implement his beautiful touch football. But as Gonzalo has pointed out, Madrid’s inability to maintain possession of the ball means that the defense is often pinned back deep in their half, while the midfielders (save Diarra, I suppose) stay up the pitch waiting for the ball.
The system worked in the initial years of the galacticos with the likes of Zidane and Figo able to keep the ball, but recently, we’ve seen Guti get knocked off the ball a lot, so for all his vision and passing, he’s also a big reason why we haven’t defended well. That’s also probably the reason for the fixation Calderon and Mijatovic have on the likes of Kaka, Fabregas and now Bremen’s Diego – midfielders with the ability to keep the ball in the midst of defenders.
We’re halfway there with Robinho and Robben, wingers who are technically sound and draw multiple defenders. It’s not clear if Sneijder is as vulnerable as Guti is to the tackle, but if he’s not, I’d rather take his lesser-but-still-good passing vision in place of the Spaniard’s penchant for losing the ball.
Madrid haven’t had anyone combine the defensive and creative skills of Redondo since he left, relying mostly on technically-limited ballwinners such as Makelele to supply the attack. It’s a testament to the difficulty of finding that midfielder who can serve as the linchpin between the defense and the forwards. We all know that Diarra is cut from the Makelele mold, but Gago, for all his skill in distribution, has yet to show he’s able to tackle as well as the Malian, and for a defensive midfielder, that’s rather important. I wonder if it wouldn’t have been more prudent to have gone for Mascherano instead…
Anyways, Gonzalo has an older post about Madrid’s curse of the central defender, which is worth a read too.
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Comments
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Steve, Gonzalo use to do this very blog. But he has made some very valid points, which is one of the things I have always disliked about Real Madrid.The squad is strong this year, much stronger then last years title winning squad. But with so many ins and outs, how is team unity? I have always disliked how few youth teamers are in the Real first team, or even how few Spanish players (region doesnt matter to me) are in the Real first team.
U of Southern Florida had a huge upset last night over West Virginia, I watched the game at a bar and was really inspired by the team unity. When I awoke this morning on my couch a commentator covering the Oregon vs Cal game had said that something like 85% of the top recruits in the state of florida ended up going to southern. This means these players are playing for pride and they all have a common background to a degree. Building a team with such a talent pool becomes much easier and the bond in the locker room becomes much more adhesive this way. Ill have to post on this, Hala Madrid!
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United States
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Real Madrid doesn’t have that creative playmaker. Someone who can dictate the pace of the game. Because if that’s supposed to be Guti’s job, someone forget to give him the memo.
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United States -
Haha Inara, Guti is our playmaker, but he goes about it a much less flashy way then Juninho, Kaka, Riquelme, etc. Funny how playmakers are South American? Anyways, we dont have a playmaker because its not our system anymore, the day of Zidane doing all the magic is over, we have a more balance approach to our play. But we have not played well the past few weeks, and Guti has not be stellar, just good. We wont have a playmaker for sometime based on the personel we have now, so Im getting use to it. I do miss Zizou though, Figo as well.
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United States -
Hi, Yes, All In White’s my blog, thanks for the compliments. On the issue of youth players in the squad, think back over the past few years and then tell me how many players of the quality of Raúl, Guti and Casillas have passed through the club. Portillo? Please! Even Pavón didn’t really have what it takes and has now moved on. The biggest mistake (and it was a big one) I can think of was letting Eto’o go – but in spite of his quality, he’s a troubled individual. No, the truth is, the majority of the players going through the youth system are probably good enough to play in the top two divisions, but only rarely do you get a player of the quality necessary to play on the first team – after all, you have to whole of the market to choose from.
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