Zinedine Zidane

Winner of the Champions League and leader of La Liga, Zinedine Zidane is impressive as the head coach of Real Madrid. But the playing style of his team is difficult to define: is there a Zidane touch?

Appointed in January to replace [Rafael] Benitez, Zinedine Zidane began surrounded by strong skepticism on his ability to coach Real Madrid. Since, as his success has progressed, he has been praised for his management of the locker room and the egos, notably that of Cristiano Ronaldo’s. On the field, his team’s playstyle is harder to grasp.

Without the ball, a new team

Since the birth of the Galacticos, the team has more often ressembled a collection of players, a cacophonic Tower of Babel, than a team built to win. The collective organization without possession of the ball is evidence to the evolution of the Madrileños. The Benitez page is turned: with the Spanish manager, the team looked heterogeneously unstructured on the defensive end. This organization has been replaced by a more coherent 4-4-1-1.

The bloc remains rather passive and looks to control the passing lanes in the heart of the play, with punctual individual pressing runs. These individual runs are rather efficient thanks to the dynamism and the speed of the offensive line: [Gareth] Bale pressing at full speed often makes the opposition’s goalkeeper anxious.

What’s more, the Madrileños have shown during the last Clasico in the Camp Nou [referring to the match on April 2nd, 2016] that they are also capable of playing further back to defend lower. This is another interesting card in Real Madrid’s deck, especially in the context of home/away games like in the CL.

With the ball, Benitez’s Real Madrid was often criticized for its positioning which hindered the team from bringing the ball from the defensive line to the midfield line to the forwards.

Despite his past as a playmaker, Zidane has not really looked to correct this positioning. In fact, the team retains a tendency to be cut in half, with forwards positioned very high up the field and midfielders who move out of position to receive the ball.

However, the team has improved at using width, with Cristiano Ronaldo having a tendency to drift towards the middle to call for the through ball, and with Morata who brings a different skillset than Benzema. But it is difficult for a team with a rather dominating style to count essentially on width, as the opposition has a tendency to play deeper against the Madrid armada. There is thus a need to dismantle more defensive blocs. In this optic, the use of Isco in a #10 role is a major change, as this player is apt at connecting offensives.

His ability to hold up the ball and resist pressure in the heart of the play is a fearsome weapon versus deeply positioned, tight defensive blocs. Against this type of defense, Real Madrid also excels in its use of crosses. As soon as it’s positioned around the opposition’s box, the team splits into two groups: the four attackers attempt to score, often accompanied by Marcelo, while the rest of the team hangs back.

This bloc split in two allows to assure a defensive stability during crosses, but could also limit the offensive power of the Merengues in the offensive third. Despite this numerical inferiority, Zidane’s men regularly come out on top, however. The proficiency of Cristiano and Bale in aerial duels coupled with Benzema, Marcelo, and Isco’s ease in combining in small spaces allows them to create numerous goal-scoring opportunities.

The Zidane Effect?

It would be foolish to deny the impact of replacing Benitez with Zidane as long as Madrid’s results justify this decision a bit more each week. Collectively, the team has clearly progressed, and Zidane’s team management is in large part responsible for this. “Zidane is our captain, our leader, the one who pushes us”, summarizes goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

However, the tactical evolution of the team remains moderate, and the Merengues are still not a European model in this domain, even if they have gained coherence and have amplified their game as we have previously seen. On this aspect Zidane’s work is aimed at establishing a coherent team by choosing players who complete each other, rather than by creating a collective framework permitting players to find each other. This method is a perfect match for the perennial Madrid problem of having too many excellent players in its squad. It also compensates Madrid’s injury woes since the beginning of the season.

His career path is often compared to that of his Catalan counterpart, Pep Guardiola, since he came like him from coaching the reserve team to then win the CL in his first season as first team manager. But in reality, Zidane is closer to Carlo Ancelotti, more empirical than dogmatic in his approach to bringing his team to victory.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Article/Tactique-y-a-t-il-un-style-zidane-au-real-madrid/755593