Eduardo Alvarez article from ESPN... hit the nail on the head
Real Madrid suffering due to Rafa Benitez's overcomplicated approach
On Sunday evening, Real Madrid opened their La Liga season with a disappointing 0-0 draw in Gijon at the hands of the youngest and least expensive squad of the tournament, Sporting. Some Madridistas could find solace in the fact that their team took 25 shots and dominated the match, especially in the second half. It's also fair to think that they probably deserved a victory at the end of regulation.
However, the visitors' performance made it obvious that their hectic preseason has not been enough to either get the side in the desired physical shape or, more importantly, to acclimatise most players to the methods and preferences of new coach Rafael Benitez. Different formations and even some surprising tactical decisions during the match were not well digested by the team.
"Common sense is the less common of all senses," goes the Spanish saying, one that the Real Madrid manager must have heard hundreds of times but didn't seem to remember last Sunday. There were a few instances during the match in which it seemed that Benitez was trying to be a bit too smart; rather than using the wealth of talent his squad possess in a simple way, he confused the players by making things more complicated than they needed to be.
Take the constant switching of positions between the forwards, for example. Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Isco and Jese Rodriguez were allowed to exchange roles depending on the flow of the game, which would make sense if these movements had generated some disorder in Sporting's defence.
They rarely did, mostly because only Ronaldo started in something similar to his most preferred position. Bale requires space (something he only found in the first 30 minutes) to exploit his speed but is a mediocre creator in the role behind the striker. Jesé is hardly a pure centre-forward; Isco, always more comfortable in a central position, struggles with the physical demands of playing on the wing.
When three members of the squad play out of their natural positions and are allowed to switch, they do it as often as they possibly can in order to get closer to their favourite sectors of the pitch, which can naturally become chaotic for the offense as a whole.
On Sunday, this switching dynamic was even less effective because Real Madrid have had barely any time to work out the kind of routines that would actually unsettle an opposing defence. In several moments of the match we saw Isco colliding with Bale, Jese occupying Ronaldo's same area, Bale and Ronaldo trying to understand who went left and who went centre, and so on...
Changing positions can be a powerful weapon, especially when used in specific moments against a defence that suddenly is caught off-guard. But when over-used, that element of surprise is lost.
It is here where Benitez should apply more common sense when picking future starting line-ups. We know that the use of players outside their natural positions has been one of Rafa's trademarks during his coaching career, but playing it a bit safer in these early weeks might be advisable until he develops a better understanding of his players' skills.
Because of the Welshman's gifts and limitations, the Bale experiment behind the striker will only work in the very rare instances in which Real Madrid spend a sizeable part of the match in their own half (an away Champions League fixture, for instance). Otherwise, both the lack of space to feast on and the role's demands -- get others involved in the offensive build up, play with his back to the goal -- make him look like a fraction of the player he actually is. Does it sound so unimaginative to use Bale on the left wing or left-forward position?
While Bale's talents were squandered, Mateo's Kovacic's role in his Real Madrid debut, a 20-minute cameo on the left wing, seemed to catch the Croatian by surprise. He's a right-footed player who prefers to play as a defensive midfielder. Benitez's decision felt especially flabbergasting because Kovacic's entrance took the left-footed James Rodriguez, who had started to wreak havoc down Sporting's right side, to the opposite side of the pitch where he struggled to make an impact.
But the case of Isco, played first on the right wing of a 4-2-3-1 and then of the more traditional 4-4-2 during the last 30 minutes, is indeed the most disappointing. He hasn't occupied his preferred position (free role behind the striker) since his first few matches with Real Madrid, a role in which he impressed. As Ancelotti rarely used the 4-2-3-1 formation after Gareth Bale joined the club a few weeks later, Isco has been playing in a suboptimal role for nearly two full seasons.
Many expected Benitez, a coach who prefers that formation, to give Isco a go in the coveted "hole" position behind the centre-forward, but it hasn't happened yet. He showed a few flashes of brilliance during the first half but lacks the speed to excel out wide and can't track back as much as a pure, more athletic winger. It perhaps explains why Danilo kept his position for much of the match while Isco was on the pitch, only allowed to venture forward once Benitez switched to a 4-4-2 with James and Modric serving as cover.
It's obvious to say that players performing out of their preferred roles will produce less, but there's an additional, detrimental impact on the overall team dynamic that can't be understated. The solution to Real Madrid's scoring slump, which is now five scoreless matches out of nine (including the preseason), seems logical: put players where they belong. It might sound like common sense, although at times that sense is anything but common.
