Real Madrid employed a Zidane-esque playing style against Viktoria Plzen

Real Madrid got back to winning ways against Viktoria Plzen. However, their win was not the only positive thing. The fact that they used a much direct approach stood out…

Real Madrid put aside Viktoria Plzen on Tuesday night to leave behind them a streak of three consecutive losses with Karim Benzema and Marcelo sealed a 2-1 win on the night. While the performance of Benzema did standout, I would like to point out my observation in Real Madrid’s playing style in their game at this juncture.

In a nutshell, the Whites resorted to playing a much direct and free-flowing style of attacking football as opposed to the passing and possession based game which Julen Lopetegui likes his team to have. But let’s break it down into detail and tactically analyse every department on the pitch.

Defensive setup

More from Real Madrid

In the backline, Keylor Navas kept his place in between the sticks while there were four defenders ahead of him in Marcelo, Sergio Ramos, Nacho Fernandez and Lucas Vazquez. The decision to play Vazquez at right back was questionable but it did pay off as the 27-year-old came to massive help while going forward and his crosses stood out. Marcelo and Lucas Vazquez were tasked with remaining in the opponent’s half for the majority of the match while Ramos and Nacho stayed back. This was visible innumerable times under Zidane and there were also gaps in the defence, similar to yesterday.

With the full backs high up, Real Madrid had a high amount of attacking options whilst going forward. Marcelo and Lucas Vazquez stayed as far as possible on the pitch and put its width to ample use, thereby stretched the opponent’s midfielder and defenders that gave Madrid’s midfielders the freedom to get into Viktoria Plzen’s box. That said, there was much less sideway and one-two passing and more focus was laid upon crossing the ball into the box where Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema were always present.

Midfield setup

The midfield setup was pretty much identical to Zinedine Zidane’s. The slight and only difference was that Isco was restricted to a left winger’s role and was not allowed to roam freely for the majority of the match. Toni Kroos’ long balls turned out to be a lot more pinpointed and had meaning as they were floated towards the full backs who kept going forward. That was a massive difference maker in contrast to the long balls which Kroos plays when the Whites follow a possession based system. His passes in the former are much direct and create a lot more openings, while in the latter they help only in the maintenance of possession.

Casemiro was handed with the liberty of going forward when Real Madrid had possession. While he would have loved to have shots at goal from long range, he did not get the ball on many instances whilst attacking because it was mainly with the fullbacks on the right and left flank. Luka Modric obviously controlled the tempo of the game but helped Lucas Vazquez with keeping the ball on the right side and supplying crosses to the forwards. The Croatian and Spanish players used each other as entices to find spaces and delivered the ball inside.

Attacking setup and final thoughts

Now turning the attention to the attacking berth, the Whites were a lot more focused on making Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema the target men in the box. Of late, that has not been the case and both the forwards have been tasked with being equally involved in the build-up play. While that’s a task which Benzema likes to do, Gareth Bale dreads it and that has been imminent with some of his recent performances.

Now turning to Isco, the Spain international was stuck onto the left wing after the opening half hour of the match. The midfielder turned winger on the night played a similar game with Marcelo on the left flank as Luka Modric and Lucas Vazquez played on the right. That helped Real Madrid cross the ball on a large number of occasions and create more direct scoring opportunities than they did in the last few matches.

In conclusion, there’s no evidence as to whether this tactic was employed by Julen Lopetegui in order to get the win or by Real Madrid’s players who were seeking to protect their manager’s job ahead of El Clasico. Nonetheless, it was a huge success and got Real Madrid all three points. While the display looked unconvincing, it was so because of Real Madrid’s lack of goals. They could have easily scored four or five if they were a little clinical. With that said, attention must now turn to the Camp Nou outing where a hungry Barcelona side awaits a wounded Madrid team.

How do you think Real Madrid will approach El Clasico?