Chapter 381: Tide-like parallel advancement!

For one thing, Kroos and Modric often prioritize staying in contact with defenders who are under less pressure, resulting in the team playing a slightly higher proportion of back passes than Barcelona (14.73% vs. 14.01%), and 31.66% of forward passes. The ratio is the lowest in La Liga.

Secondly, the team will also lack penetrating passes in dangerous areas. After all, Kroos and Modric will be limited to the midfield and backcourt, and this 4-3-3 formation does not leave anything for James. Due to the position, it is basically impossible to expect smart passes that frequently pass through the opponent's defense.

Thirdly, this idea of ​​consolidating possession of the ball essentially means "opening up a battlefield in a relatively safer rear". It is true that there are many people in the backcourt, which is helpful for passing the ball. However, once the ball is lost, , the results are self-evident.

In fact, even in this peak season, Real Madrid's midfield and backfield passing is far from that stable. Although the team loses the ball every minute of net defensive time, the frequency is quite respectable and is the third lowest in La Liga; but it loses the ball as high as 17.20%. The power occurs in the backcourt, but the proportion is the 10th highest in La Liga. It is not uncommon for midfielders and backfielders to dig holes for themselves, as shown below.

So far, Real Madrid's passing and controlling method does not seem to be too threatening. However, this slow-paced advancement is neither all components of an offense; nor is it the only type of offensive system.

Real Madrid also relied on its strong performance after advancement and more diversified offensive routines to score 106 goals throughout the season.

It must be mentioned here that Zidane emphasizes passing and control but is not obsessed with it. The team is unambiguous when it should be simple and direct.

The more smart pass passes to the side, it is true that the penetration of the middle is impossible, but Real Madrid does not seem to care at all about whether there is penetration from the middle. Anyway, it was the end of the peak of the BBC. No matter how it is placed, in most cases, crosses are enough to rely on. arms.

The team contributes one cross every 1.45 minutes of net possession time, ranking second in La Liga in frequency; and its cross accuracy rate of 36.10% is also the second highest in the league.

The biggest advantage of maintaining the offense in a relatively simple way such as crosses is that it is extremely easy to accumulate relatively reliable shots - although these shots are difficult to avoid interference, they are at least close enough to the goal.

In the 16-17 season, Real Madrid formed a shot every 1.98 minutes of net possession time, beating all teams in La Liga at a frequency; and because the shooting areas are mostly concentrated near the small penalty area, it can at least increase the probability of scoring through distance, and each shot is expected The number of goals scored is as high as 0.128, second only to Barcelona led by MSN.

In the end, relying on the superposition of times, the team's average number of expected goals per game was almost the same as Barcelona's. The actual number of goals was slightly less, mostly because Barcelona's shooting accuracy was better (the real goal scoring rate was 0.058 for Barcelona and 0.041 for Real Madrid). .

Of course, Real Madrid has never given up its "excellent tradition" of advocating crosses for many years. This is also a reasonable positional battle plan naturally determined by its frontcourt configuration.

So why are crosses in the 16-17 season so much more reliable than those in the following two seasons?

The first reason is that the frontcourt configuration is rich enough.

At that time, Bale had not completely fallen out of favor. He still made 17 starts in the whole season. Morata also came to the bench to support him. In addition, Ronaldo continued his strong performance. Real Madrid did not lack people in the opponent's penalty area, and even Vazquez, James also has a certain awareness of grabbing points in the penalty area. In the end, although Real Madrid was suppressed by MSN next door at the top of the list of touches in the penalty area, as many as 6 people were shortlisted in the top 30 list, continuing to grab points resources. His ability is unparalleled in La Liga.

What needs to be especially noted is that Bell did not "let himself go" like he did last season. Zidane seems to have this ability, allowing Bell to reduce the ball holding and go to the penalty area to grab points.

Here are some animated pictures of Real Madrid passing the ball to grab points. Let's focus on how many troops Real Madrid accumulated in the penalty area at the moment of the cross.

When the winger passed the ball, Morata and Ronaldo grabbed the point at the same time.

After Isco separated, he immediately entered the penalty area to grab the point. When Carvajal passed the ball, Bell and Isco in the penalty area grabbed the front point, and Ronaldo grabbed the back point.

When Danilo passed the ball, Real Madrid formed a three-man rushing point near the opponent's small penalty area.

The above group-style point-grabbing charge not only creates multiple contact points, but also makes the offense relatively more flexible. On the one hand, when a winger passes the ball from the outside, the number of responders in the penalty area can still be guaranteed. Real Madrid therefore ensures more success. In addition to the leading striker Cristiano Ronaldo, there are as many as 7 players who have contributed more than 5 goals this season.

When Cristiano Ronaldo passes from the side as shown in the picture below, Bell cuts in at the right time and Morata resolutely grabs the front point, which can ensure that there are enough contact points in front of the goal.

On the other hand, the group charge allows you to play some small tricks from time to time when grabbing points, such as "the player at the back point detours to grab the front point". This move is somewhat similar to the off-ball movement using screens in basketball. Of course, the premise is that in Enough troops must be concentrated in the penalty area to have the possibility of "covering".

Note that James, who entered last, made a circle from the right area of ​​the penalty area, threw it to the left side of the goal, and gained the first point. And Iniesta, who was marking him, was attracted by the other two Real Madrid players who were competing for points. Without a group-style grab, this kind of movement would simply not exist.

Of course, Real Madrid's own aerial advantage is indeed huge within La Liga.

The team has a super high success rate of 53.02% throughout the season, ranking first in La Liga. Its advantage over second place is equivalent to the gap between second and tenth, which makes it stand out from the crowd.

Having this confidence means that once a group charge is formed, the opponent will most likely not be able to tell who is the focus of marking.

It's easy to talk about sports battles. After all, it's always good to take care of Ronaldo when defending against points.

However, during set kicks, Real Madrid's midfield and backfield will participate in grabbing points, and the situation will become extremely complicated - Ramos frequently saved the ball at set kicks during the season. The media kept promoting the "big heart", but somewhat ignored that Real Madrid itself It is a team with extremely terrible set-piece attacks - 30.49% of the team's set-piece attacks can eventually lead to shots, ranking fourth in La Liga in terms of quality.

In addition, the small routines mentioned above in the group charge will obviously be easier to implement in the set-piece attack because more troops are invested.

With this idea in mind, when we look at some of Ramos's killer hits, it is not difficult to find that the "cover" of his teammates is crucial.

Before Ramos fought for the top, it was obvious that Bell provided him with a screen.

Real Madrid charged in a group style, and the number of people fighting for the top was even more than that of the defending Barcelona. In fact, even if Ramos couldn't hit the ball, Ronaldo basically fought for the top without any defensive interference.

Before Ramos fought for the top, Varane moved forward and helped him take away a defender; then Ronaldo helped him block a defender. There was almost no physical confrontation before Ramos touched the ball.

However, positional warfare is ultimately a relatively inefficient offensive method, although in most cases all teams have to resort to this method to solve the problem.

Zidane himself does not reject some relatively simple and direct routines. The team's fast break has not restored the fast whirlwind level of the Mourinho era. The counterattack ratio of 7.14% "only" ranks third in La Liga; but it is terrible. The difference is that 31.63% of counterattacks can eventually lead to shots, which is a quality that beats all other teams in La Liga.

The parallel advancement like the following tide was implemented very well in the 16-17 season.

It must be noted that although Real Madrid did not have a top frontcourt ball-handler at the time, there were many midfielders who were good at holding the ball alone to solve the opponent's pressing; although the team did not frequently confront the ball on the offensive end (the frequency was 14th in La Liga) ), but its success rate of 44.85% ranks first in La Liga.

The team's counterattack was largely due to the individual ball-handling efforts of two Croatian midfielders, Modric and Kovacic, as the first step.

Such as Kovacic's advancement.

In addition, the strong passing ability in the midfield and backfield allows Real Madrid to launch attacks directly through long passes in the backfield. This has never changed since Alonso joined.

The team attempts 1.95 long passes per minute of net possession time, ranking 10th in La Liga. As a team with strong passing control ability and a lot of short passes, this is already a quite unusual ranking; what is rare is that the high frequency The long pass did not affect the quality of the long pass. Real Madrid's long pass success rate was as high as 63.82%, ranking 1st in La Liga - among the other teams in the top 5.

The frequency of long passes is quite different from that of Real Madrid.

In fact, on more than one occasion that season, Real Madrid reaped direct rewards from long balls.

Before the Champions League final that season, Real Madrid and Juventus were called a spear-and-shield showdown. Whether or not the result was simply based on the cumulative number of goals scored and lost, it was at least a correct judgment.

In fact, if it weren't for the fierce firepower of the MSN combination and Zidane's drastic rotation in the middle of the season, it would not be impossible for Real Madrid to lead the league in goals.

This is a team that lacks a ball-handling talent, but is extremely good at stacking shots.

Of course, this offensive mode naturally requires a large number of troops to be committed to the attack. Correspondingly, there will be hidden dangers in the defense.

In fact, their performance on the defensive end is indeed not as impressive as on the offensive end.

Defense: No risk of outbreak

Objectively speaking, Real Madrid is said to be the strongest in the 16-17 season, but there is still an imbalance between offense and defense.

The team scored a lot of goals on the offensive end, but the defense was somewhat lagging behind.

After 38 rounds throughout the season, Real Madrid conceded 41 goals. The fourth-fewest ranking in La Liga seems reasonable, but compared with Atletico Madrid (27), Villarreal (33) and Barcelona in front of them. (37) The gap is still quite obvious (especially the first two gears).

Judging from the data, they still have many problems on the defensive end.

These problems can only be considered "hidden dangers" at best in such a successful season, but it is only a matter of time before they explode.

In the following two seasons, Real Madrid really started the "defense cheating" mode.

In fact, it is a very bad habit for outsiders to scold defenders frequently. In recent years, Real Madrid defenders have spared no effort when chasing back, no matter what their condition is. Because of this, in addition to the fact that opponents counterattacked too frequently in the Lopetegui era, most of them Real Madrid can limit the opponent's shooting environment to a relatively poor range every time.

In the 16-17 season, this phenomenon was particularly obvious. Real Madrid's opponents' expected goals per shot was 0.096, the fourth lowest in La Liga. In addition, Navas' barely qualified performance ("preventing opponents from scoring goals" 0.80%), Real Madrid will somehow The opponent's "true goal scoring rate" is limited to 0.015, which is the fifth lowest in La Liga.

Considering that teams with a high ball possession rate usually gather heavy troops in the frontcourt, resulting in an empty backcourt, thus giving their opponents good shooting opportunities, Real Madrid can force the opponent's shooting environment to a "worse" level. It is very rare.

So why do they concede more goals? The reason is simple - they really should not allow so many shots to their opponents with such a high ball possession rate - the team allows their opponents one shot every 2.73 minutes of net defensive time, and the frequency of shots is the 9th in La Liga High.

No matter how bad the opponent's shooting environment and shot quality are, they will eventually knock on your door if they accumulate over and over again.

What is the specific problem?

Real Madrid adopts a fairly fragmented defensive strategy - they do emphasize pressing in the frontcourt, and they do benefit from it.

The problem is that Real Madrid's pressing seems to only occur in the frontcourt. In other words, once the opponent hits the ball past Real Madrid's first line of defense, it is often a clear path after entering the midfield. Zidane may know the opponent's players, or Due to overall tactical considerations, it seems that there is no consideration at all for the midfielder to follow the frontcourt to grab the ball.

If you only look at the two pictures above, it is difficult to see that the frequency of Real Madrid regaining the ball is only 2.83 times per minute of net defensive time, which is only the eighth level in La Liga.

The low total number of ball possessions recovered also makes the team's extremely high proportion of ball possessions recovered in the frontcourt (17.88%, second highest in La Liga) somewhat pale.

The most terrible thing is the proportion of Real Madrid midfielders regaining the ball. Guess how many?

Merely 37.84%, La Liga...2nd from the bottom...

Limited by this poor midfield pressing force, Real Madrid is simply poor at limiting the opponent's passing progress.

In every minute of net passing time, he will pass a terrifying 14.93 passes to his opponents with an ultra-high pass success rate of 83.70%. These two statistics are the second highest and first highest in La Liga respectively.

What's particularly bad is that these passes include a large number of threatening passes that can generate substantial progress.

Real Madrid's opponents' progressive pass frequency (5th), progressive pass success rate (10th), smart pass frequency (4th), and smart pass success rate (9th) all rank among the top 10 in La Liga.

The most frightening thing is that the opponent passes the ball to the front third of the field. The frequency is only 9th. The success rate of 74.10% is actually the second highest in La Liga.

This means that Real Madrid's midfield interception is basically negligible...

Judging from the way defensive technical movements are used, it is not an exaggeration to say that Real Madrid has the potential to have "uncle disease".

The team's defensive confrontation success rate against the ball holder is obviously very high (63.06%, first in La Liga), but the frequency is only 2.58 net defense times per minute, embarrassingly ranking 10th in La Liga; interception and cutting passes Don't even mention it - it is already difficult to interfere with such a high frequency of passes to the opponent. In the end, Real Madrid only caused substantial interference in 9.78% of the opponent's passes (that is, it touched the ball, regardless of whether it was touched or not). forming an interception), ranking...3rd from the bottom in La Liga...

In fact, in terms of Real Madrid's staffing, this situation is completely expected - regardless of whether Bell or Isco starts, Real Madrid will find it difficult to add a permanent defender in the midfield. A three-person midfield defense line is Under normal circumstances, among the three there is Kroos, who has always been soft on defense. This means that if Zidane emphasizes pressing in the midfield, he will ultimately be able to directly expose the back line to his opponents.

Therefore, even if there is a pressing in the midfield, the timing is usually chosen and left to Casemiro to complete - or even in conjunction with the defender, not Kroos.

It is a map of the two defensive lines marked according to Real Madrid's initial defensive position. Obviously, Kroos, who is the left member of the three midfielders, did not actually appear in his own defense zone, and finally succeeded in grabbing it with Ramos. It's Casemiro.

But it should be noted that Casemiro's defense zone is actually not here. In order to achieve this pinch, Casemiro moved Modric to the side with the ball. Real Madrid actually missed someone in the middle of the midfield. of. How dare you use this kind of pressing so often?

It is undeniable that such a defense will be extremely dangerous when encountering a strong opponent, and Real Madrid has indeed suffered a lot - especially considering that their defense line is often short of assists due to full-backs and midfielders. The problem of defensive disadvantages will inevitably be amplified.

This is enough to explain why Zidane does not let the midfield press - the frontcourt presses but fails to press down, and if the midfield presses again, his overall position will be messed up.

In fact, Real Madrid has tried to increase the number of defenders as much as possible. There are 4 people in the midfield instead of 3. However, the midfielder still has not had time to cut off Rakitic's receiving route. This is the inevitable risk of pressing.

Then Rakitic passed the ball forward, and Nacho failed to intercept the ball. Note that in theory, Ramos and Nacho should be attacking Neymar at this time, but Ramos could not go to the middle to cover up the defense. Cello did not come back, so Ramos had no choice but to follow Suarez, who was on the sidelines, so he helped Nacho flawlessly.

The three-man defense in the midfield was useless and could not cover the open space on the wing. Iniesta almost aimed to pass.

Marcelo made an assist and was unable to defend in time. Ramos struggled with whether to go to the middle to help or help Marcelo take over Suarez on the side. During the hesitation, Suarez had already succeeded in grabbing the point.

The good news is that Zidane himself is deeply aware of this problem. In many tough battles, he will order a winger to retreat. In addition, Modric was in good physical condition and had excellent running ability. Finally, in most cases, he At that time, the number of people supported the midfield defense.

For example, against Bayern in the Champions League, Bell, who started the game, basically maintained his defensive enthusiasm.

In fact, there are not many special highlights in this defense. It is basically the normal effect of the typical 4-4 parallel position. The reason why it is taken out is to illustrate Zidane's defensive arrangement at that time.

Posting two static pictures, everyone pays attention to Bell's retracement and the overall movement of Real Madrid's defensive system.

Of course, before Valverde emerged today, Zidane actually lacked the chips to truly solve the defensive problem in the midfield - Kroos and Modric partnered up, and all he could hope for was Modric fighting for his life to defend back and forth. .

But Zidane has never lacked important chess pieces to improve on the wing-Lucas Vazquez has been able to gain a foothold in the star-studded Real Madrid for a long time, and his investment in the defensive end can be said to be the most important.

In extreme cases, Zidane will even ask Vazquez to retreat to the back line and play a conservative system of 5-3 positioning.