Football: After listening to the persuasion, I became the strongest free man!

Chapter 393 De Gea’s heroic performance!

This tactic was perfectly demonstrated by Barcelona and Guardiola's Manchester City at their peak, but it failed to succeed in Real Madrid. Not only did the team fail to show a sharp passing and control tactic, but it also lost its former glory. Excellent counterattack ability
During Lopetegui's period, Real Madrid's counterattacks accounted for only 5.01%, ranking second from the bottom in La Liga.

The reason is very simple. This tactic has extremely strict requirements on the players' sense of position, passing rate and passing accuracy. Real Madrid players need a long adaptation period.

At the beginning of the La Liga season, Real Madrid's passing and control tactics were able to show extremely high ball control when facing weak teams, but they often lost their effect when facing some mid-to-upper-tier teams.

Lopetegui greatly increased Modric's position, thus placing the organization and dispatching task in the midfield area on Kroos alone.

We all know that, generally speaking, Real Madrid's midfield trio is backed by Casemiro, and Cross and Modric are relatively close. The two of them can use their delicate ball-handling skills and tacit small-scale cooperation to maintain the balance. Live in the midfield front.

After Modric's position was raised, the distance between Cross and Cross increased, and there was no way to form a small-scale pass similar to the past.

In desperation, Cross could only dribble forward with the ball which was too risky during the game.

This tactical strategy will give the opponent's midfield a huge space to press. Many teams facing Real Madrid will choose to give up marking Modric in a short period of time, and pile up the crowd to double-team Kroos with the ball. limit.

Under such a background environment, Kroos's shortcomings of slow speed are infinitely exposed. Once he reaches a deadlock with the ball in the midfield area, not only will the forward line and even the two full-backs who are inserted cannot get the ball, but also It will give the opponent many counterattack opportunities from the side.

While working in Real Madrid's youth training camp, Solari discovered outstanding young players like Achraf, Valverde, and Reguilon. As Real Madrid gradually entered a new era, he hired someone who could discern the potential of young players. The head coach does seem very necessary.

Solari's obsession with passing control is far less profound than that of Lopetegui. After taking office, he denied Asensio's main position on the left wing and instead regarded Vinicius, the young player the club spent a lot of money to introduce, as his first choice. .

In March 2019, Zidane officially returned to Real Madrid, and he will also shoulder the important task of leading the Galaxy giant to win the La Liga and Champions League championships.

Zidane's tactical transformation of the ball can be seen from the average points he scored twice in charge of Real Madrid. The French coach averaged 1 points per game during his first time coaching Real Madrid; after entering the palace for the second time, this The data dropped to 2.28 points.

Therefore, Zidane, who entered the palace for the second time, has been given a longer period of tactical adjustment period, and he can deduce his ideal tactics and personnel combination in the league in a more relaxed manner.

When the opponent steals the ball from Kroos' feet, he will launch a counterattack along the wide space. Los Blancos' single defensive midfielder Casemiro can only leave his defensive position to cover the side, and the team's central space will be exposed again. come out.

More importantly, Real Madrid suffered a defeat when facing Ajax in the Champions League 1/8 finals. They lost 1:4 in the second round at the Bernabeu Stadium. Such a dismal record directly led to Solari's dismissal. fuse.

Before becoming the head coach of Real Madrid's first team, Solari already had rich coaching experience in Real Madrid's youth training camp and even the youth team. The club believed that he could have a more thorough understanding of the current needs of Los Blancos, so he was promoted to Real Madrid's first team. Team coach. In addition to his familiarity with the team, Solari's ability to discover young players is also one of the important reasons why Real Madrid's top brass is willing to promote him.

In addition, Solari also realized the impact of Modric's positional conditions on the interception hardness of Real Madrid's midfield. He retreated the Croatian international to a parallel position with Kroos, Real Madrid's classic midfielder. The three-man stance returns.

Solari led Real Madrid to a 4-game winning streak at the beginning of his tenure, which was the best start for any Real Madrid head coach.

Considering that the season was nearing the end when Zidane returned to Real Madrid, the team was already relatively far away from Barcelona at the top of the standings.

On October 2018, 10, Real Madrid suffered a 28:1 defeat in the El Clásico with their arch-rival Barcelona. Their position in the standings dropped to 5th place. Not only were they far away from the top spot, they had even begun to emerge. Risk of relegation.

Against this background, Real Madrid club executives made a prompt decision to fire Lopetegui on October 10 and hire Santiago Solari instead.

The Argentine head coach asked the team to increase the passing rate while advancing from back to front, and instead deliver the ball to Vinicius and Bale, who have the advantage of speed, in a short time.

During Lopetegui's time, he preferred to use No. 20 Asensio as the left winger. The famous Spanish coach believed that Asensio's dribbling ability and organizational skills can keep the ball in the frontcourt for a long time and increase the number of balls. The team's conductive space.

Solari's tactics have increased Real Madrid's offensive threat to a certain extent and also allowed the team to improve its position in the standings.

After sending away Solari, Real Madrid's senior management, who had experienced continuous failures in selecting head coaches, learned from the pain and realized Zidane's importance to the team.

The Argentine head coach asked the team to increase the passing rate while advancing from back to front, and instead deliver the ball to Vinicius and Bale, who have the advantage of speed, in a short time.

After coming to the first team, Solari first fine-tuned the team's main lineup.

But what people didn't expect was that not long after, the Argentine head coach also fell into a similar "high start and low start" as Lopetegui: Solari led Real Madrid to play a total of 32 games. The Legion lost 8 of those games.

In terms of tactics, although Solari denied the slow passing and control during the Lopetegui period, he only made some minor repairs on the basis of his predecessor, and did not completely innovate the tactics of Los Blancos.

After entering the new season, Zidane adopted a combination of new and old personnel selection. However, with Hazard's injury and Jovic's decline, the French coach gave Vinicius and Rodrigo two More playing time for young players.

Unlike his predecessor, Zidane, who is very familiar with Ronaldo's technical characteristics, knows that neither Hazard nor Vinicius can replace the Portuguese's scoring ability. He does not give these wide players overly complicated responsibilities of moving in and outflanking. , but established Benzema as the tactical core of the frontcourt.

If you think about it carefully, Benzema is indeed a very underrated center in today's football. During Ronaldo's time at Real Madrid, he has always played the role of a green leaf, and even set an embarrassing record of only 5 goals in the league in a single season.

After Ronaldo left, people discussed Vinicius, Rodrigo, Hazard, and even Mariano, who performed mediocrely, but Benzema was excluded.

Benzema really doesn’t have the ability to take the lead on his own?
The answer is of course no. In the past two seasons, he has helped Real Madrid score 57 goals in all competitions, and the total number of goals scored is the highest among the Real Madrid team.

It can be said that Real Madrid's leading star in the post-Cristiano Ronaldo era is not Hazard, who is worth over 100 million, Modric, who has won the Ballon d'Or, or Ramos, the captain who leads the defense. Benzema is mediocre and always makes headlines for taking the blame.

Both Lopetegui and Solari ignored the importance of Benzema, but Zidane, who once led Real Madrid to glory, recognized the value of the Frenchman.

When he came to the team, he gave Benzema full freedom of movement in the frontcourt, and even did not hesitate to greatly reduce Hazard's ball-taking space.

At the same time, Real Madrid's dominant tactics have gradually transformed from the once flashy ground tradition to a concise attack with more efficient football attributes.

In order to score goals, they can lay down their bodies and fight back, or they can make some seemingly aimless long passes. Of course, they can also use the side crosses that the team is best at.

Real Madrid's tactical transformation can be clearly reflected from a set of data. They completed 1577 successful long passes this season, ranking first in La Liga.

You know, Real Madrid only made a total of 2442 long pass attempts (this data can only rank 11th in La Liga). Their long pass success rate reached an astonishing 64.6%, ranking first in La Liga. Bit. It is no accident that Real Madrid can achieve such a high long pass success rate. Their long passes are more instigated by Kroos, Ramos and Casemiro. Among them, Kroos is one of the top midfielders in world football today. His long pass success rate reached an astonishing 1%, the highest long pass success rate among all midfielders in La Liga this season.

Ramos and Casemiro are more responsible for defense on the court, but it does not mean that their footwork is not enough to support some difficult long passes.

Ramos has completed 238 successful long passes this season, with a long pass success rate of 73%, the highest success rate among all defenders;
Casemiro has completed a total of 228 successful long passes this season, with a long pass success rate of 71%, ranking 4th among all midfielders (you know, Casemiro's position is the backcourt waist, his long pass success rate is even higher than many attacking midfielders known for their organization).

With several stable starting points for long passes in the midfield and backfield areas, Vinicius, Rodrygo and others with obvious speed advantages have more space to attack.

Generally speaking, these two players have very good skills at the foot of the ball, but their receiving awareness and running position selection are still a bit immature, so they are not suitable for narrow-range passing tactics.

Once Real Madrid uses some efficient offensive methods with time differences, they will be able to get enough dribbling and acceleration space on the wing, and the excellent passing abilities of Vinicius and Rodrygo will be more reflected from the side.

Some people think that Vinicius's too fancy dribbling during the game is a bit flashy. In fact, Zidane very much encourages young players to actively show their personal abilities on the wing.

Of course, Vinicius's breakthrough on the wing is not only to demonstrate his personal abilities, but also to bring effective three-dimensionality to the team's offense.

As shown above, when the team transfers the ball to the front wing with a fast long pass, Benzema has no way to outflank the center position in time (Benzema is slower).

In this way, there are only two choices before Vinicius:
1. Use personal skills to force an inside shot;
2. Use your foot skills to control the ball and wait for the full-backs and center to outflank you.

Generally speaking, Real Madrid's wingers will not engage in too risky individual battles. Instead, they believe in controlling the ball and waiting for their own players to insert.

Such a tactical strategy can not only greatly increase the team's possibility of crossing, but also consume the physical energy of the opponent's defensive players.

Real Madrid has scored a total of 40 goals in the second half this season, only two behind Barcelona.

In contrast, in the first half, they only scored 30 goals in total, a full 14 goals behind Barcelona.

It can be said that Real Madrid's tactics that are good at mobilizing the opponent's physical fitness greatly increased their scoring probability in the second half, thus taking an advantage in the final competition with Barcelona for the championship.

It is undeniable that Real Madrid in the post-Cristiano Ronaldo era has experienced a serious decline in record in the Champions League.

However, the club's top management is also actively reversing this situation. First of all, they have invested large sums of money in the transfer market for many consecutive seasons, introducing frontcourt offensive stars like Hazard, Vinicius, and Rodrygo. .

Although these players have not yet met outside expectations due to various reasons, there is no doubt that as long as they can regain their competitive status and integrate into the team's tactics, Real Madrid's frontcourt offensive capabilities can be effectively improved.

Secondly, Real Madrid's successive head coaches in the post-Cristiano Ronaldo era have clearly realized that it is not easy to find a replacement for the Portuguese superstar, and they have also begun to gradually promote the overall tactical reform of the Los Blancos.

During the Lopetegui period, the Spanish head coach once tried to implant the pass-control gene into Real Madrid's formation, but unfortunately it ended in failure; Solari's tactics were relatively more flexible, although he denied Lopetegui's relative success. There are some stubborn passing and control tactics, but there is no comprehensive reform of Real Madrid's offensive and defensive system, but only minor repairs on the original basis.

In the Zidane era, the French meritorious coach gave up the flashy pass-and-control style of play for Real Madrid and continued to use highly efficient fast offensive tactics.

Today's Real Madrid can not only play fast and entertaining conduct in a local area, but also shrink the defense line in a timely manner and adopt a more reliable defensive counterattack strategy. Taken together, Real Madrid is returning to its own correct path forward under the leadership of Zidane.

But from a more rational perspective, the upgrading of a team cannot be completed in a short time. Real Madrid may be able to achieve good results in the league, but they still need to achieve the heights they once achieved in the Champions League. Need more time.

In the history of world football, it is not only the outstanding performance of players on the field that attracts fans, but also the interesting anecdotes off the field that add a lot of luster to the football world.

As one of the greatest clubs, their success comes not only from the blessing of outstanding stars, but also from the stable management command for decades, as well as the high perseverance of never giving up in difficult situations, which has shaped the football world. A peak in the history of development that can never be ignored.

Of course, Real Madrid's history is by no means smooth sailing. Even in the 10s when they won consecutive Champions League titles, the team suffered setbacks in many areas.

There may be mistakes by the management, or there may be intentional targeting by other teams.

But what fans are talking about even more is the long-circulated "Real Madrid fax machine incident."

Younger fans may have gradually forgotten this incident, or even have no memory of it.

After all, from a larger perspective, the Real Madrid fax machine incident has now become more of a joke after dinner. It had more or less impact on the development of the club at the time, but overall these impacts did not affect the football. The future of the team.

Therefore, the fax machine incident has gradually evolved over the years and has been separated from the field of football. It has become more of an interesting incident that Real Madrid has encountered in the development history of this club.

Although his form has declined in recent years, it is undeniable that De Gea is still one of the best goalkeepers in world football in the 21st century.

The Spanish goalkeeper rose to prominence at Atletico Madrid and became the team's main force in the 10-11 season, making 49 appearances in various competitions on behalf of the club.

On July 2011, 7, Manchester United purchased the Spanish goalkeeper for 1 million euros. Since then, De Gea's performance in the Premier League has risen rapidly, and he has quickly become one of the world's top goalkeepers.

De Gea's heroic performance at Manchester United has inevitably attracted the attention of many wealthy clubs, including Real Madrid, who are in urgent need of adding goalkeepers.

Before his embarrassing performance in the 2018 World Cup, De Gea's professionalism had always been exemplary. He was regarded as the most stable goalkeeper in Spain after Casillas, and he had also experienced the test of many major events at Manchester United. , both professional skills and psychological quality have been further improved.

At that time, Real Madrid had sufficient goalkeeper reserves. Navas, who joined the team in the summer window of the 2014-15 season, performed outstandingly and his performance at the goalkeeper position was impeccable.

But at that time, Real Madrid never gave up looking for a richer goalkeeper combination. Navas alone seemed unable to meet their requirements for the thickness of the lineup.

Against this background, Real Madrid's senior management and Manchester United launched multiple rounds of negotiations in the summer of 2015, with the purpose of acquiring De Gea, a world-class goalkeeper.

(End of this chapter)