More

    Soccer News: Real Madrid: Can Ancelotti’s return bring the team back to a swift and rampant past?

    Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland? How about both of them? The questions are the same as Real Madrid enters each transfer window. As in 2020, however, such queries are completely unrealistic.

    Prior to last season, which began just six months after the coronavirus pandemic began, Real had not been able to sign a single contract with the first team. Their most significant activity was the € 40 million sale of Achraf Hakimi to Inter Milan.

    It’s a similar story 12 months later, having failed to deliver silverware in front of an empty Alfredo Di Stefano stadium. Free agent David Alaba is the only Los Blancos recruit and his arrival is also offset by the departures of fellow central defenders Sergio Ramos – at the end of the contract – and Raphael Varane – with a sale to Manchester United agreed for 50 million euros.

    Financial results earlier this month recorded a loss of revenue of “nearly € 300 million” due to the pandemic. An after-tax profit of € 874,000 for 2020-21 was achieved thanks to “intense spending savings measures in all sectors”, reads a note, which adds: “As regards the economic situation, the current forecasts indicate that the recovery from the pre-pandemic situation will not be immediate. In this context, the club will continue its efforts so far to contain spending “.

    One of the biggest clubs in the world does things cheaply. A change of coach was only initiated by Zinedine Zidane, whose replacement, Carlo Ancelotti, was drawn from Everton in mid-table, although Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri said this week that he was offered the position.

    Ancelotti has already been here, of course, having taken Real Madrid to ‘La Decima’ in 2013-14 after a 12-year wait. How does the club lift the club again without this time breaking the two-month transfer world record in the role is another question: a Stats Perform attempts to answer with the help of Opta data.

    Real quick return?

    Just as Ancelotti is returning to Madrid, so too is Gareth Bale. It is he that Real has shelled out 100 million euros to inspire Ancelotti’s first team to glory in the Champions League. Now he could return to play a leading role.

    The winger seemed to have no future under Zidane, but he will certainly be the main beneficiary if Ancelotti brings the team back to the attacking approach he had previously employed at the Santiago Bernabeu. In his two seasons at the helm, Madrid have scored 222 goals in La Liga, 22 more than in the last three seasons combined.

    That would mean a significant change, though. Zidane’s men not only scored fewer goals, they moved at a slower pace. Real Madrid recorded an average of 4.7 passes and 12.7 seconds per sequence in the league in 2020-21, with 662 sequences of 10 passes or more. In 2013-14, with Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel Di Maria leading a quick line of attack, the Madrid sequences typically lasted just 3.9 passes and 10.3 seconds, with just 475 sequences of 10 and more. These numbers only increased marginally in Ancelotti’s second season.

    This style change is also evidenced by Madrid’s direct speed, which moved 1.93 meters per second in 2013-14, but only 1.41 in an average streak last season. Making the most of the attributes of Bale, Ronaldo and Di Maria, that Madrid team had 122 direct attacks but only 112 accumulated attacks, figures that changed drastically in opposite directions to 87 and 165 respectively.

    Ancelotti’s football was undoubtedly exciting and attractive again. Even when he was sacked in 2015, president Florentino Perez said: “The affection that the players and fans have for Carlo is the same as the affection I have for him.” However, implementing that system again may not be entirely straightforward.

    Ancelotti arrived in 2013 just a year behind LaLiga’s 121 goals in the 2011-12 season: the most goals Real have ever scored in a season. The Italian gave his superstars the freedom to play but didn’t need to reconfigure their approach. This matches the rest of a brilliant career to date, which has seen him mostly credited with big names in man management rather than introducing the kind of tactical changes that could nearly double a team’s offensive output.

    If this is Ancelotti’s desire, however, between Bale, Vinicius Junior and Eden Hazard, Real should at least still have the players to beat the teams in rhythm. Indeed, getting Hazard back in shape and shooting two years and four goals in his La Liga career will be as crucial as rehabilitating Bale. The former Chelsea striker may put the famous ‘whispering diva’ to the test, but Real Madrid can’t afford a € 100m man not to contribute.

    Age is against Ancelotti

    Real’s play without the ball has also changed in the time Ancelotti has been away, and getting them to play in that sense as they did during his first stint will be even more difficult. Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro – Real’s longtime midfield trio – were on board when Ancelotti left the club six years ago. Modric will turn 36 in September. Class and experience are on their side, but the energy of youth is not.

    With Di Maria occupying a key role in 4-2-3-1 and Modric finding his feet in Spain, Madrid pressed relentlessly in 2013-14. The opponents were only allowed 9.3 passes per defensive play (PPDA) among the 499 pressed sequences of the Los Blancos. As a result, Real’s attacks started from 42.3 meters in attack on average, driven by their 179 turnovers, of which 45 led to shots and nine to goals.

    Ancelotti also failed to maintain these standards the following year, as Di Maria left for the Premier League as a thigh injury limited Modric to 16 games. Madrid have regressed in every category.

    In 2021 it’s not that Madrid don’t push, it’s that they don’t do it with the same intensity. There were 430 pressed sequences last season and still a whopping 178 high turnovers, but opponents were granted 11.3 PPDAs, with Real Madrid unable to press at a comparable pace. The stats are unlikely to improve as Kroos is also over thirty and even more minutes are pumped into the legs of one of modern football’s great midfields. The emergence of Federico Valverde – young and versatile – helps, but Ancelotti could face the unenviable task of dismantling a unit he helped put together.

    Alaba alters the complexion

    At this point, with a former manager returning to lead the same players, Real’s approach seems closer to devolution than evolution or revolution. The defense will at least guarantee this team a new splendor, even if not necessarily better than Ancelotti’s chances of success at home or abroad.

    Alaba is a great player with extensive experience, six years younger than Ramos but with 10 Bundesliga titles and two Champions League triumphs to his name. It’s a similar change that makes sense, even with Ramos’ emotional ties to the Bernabeu. However, asking Alaba to also replace Varane, the outgoing captain’s faithful defensive partner, seems like a difficult question.

    Rather than settling into a new club in a new country alongside a World Cup winner – “Varane, of course, I’d love to play with him,” Alaba said recently, last week – Real’s only sign-up looks set. to be called upon to perform the role of the old man alongside Eder Militao, who has only made 23 LaLiga starts in two seasons.

    Yet Militao has crucial attributes that Alaba doesn’t have, with the converted full-back far less combative than the two exited defenders. At Bayern, in the last Bundesliga, Alaba played only 5.0 duels in 90 minutes, fewer than Varane (5.4), Ramos (6.4) and Militao (7.9) in LaLiga. Only 55.4% of those won, another low when Varane (67.9%) led the way.

    Militao may then be tasked with getting close to opposing forwards, but Alaba may find it harder to avoid being targeted in the air. He had a measly 1.2 aerial duels for 90, down 2.3 for Varane, 4.3 for Ramos and 5.2 for Militao. As Varane won 76.0 percent of these duels at the top of the table and Ramos led the way with 63.8 percent, the opponents faced a gap against both center-backs. Alaba’s 51.4% success rate shows why it tends to avoid such encounters.

    An area of ​​real strength for Real Madrid could now become a weak point. Only Sevilla (four) conceded fewer header goals than Real (five) in the league last season, while Real Betis (five conceded) were the only side to be more focused on set pieces than Zidane’s side. (six). With Ramos and Varane fielding the area, Real faced the fourth attempt to head less (58). It is unlikely that they will rank impressively again with 5 foot 11 in Alaba in the heart of the defense.

    Real Madrid will hardly make the most of Alaba’s versatility – well-stocked left-back but now short in the middle of the defensive line – yet his skill with the ball, honed in several roles, should at least help keep Ancelotti’s men on foot. front. Part of a dominant Bayern team, Alaba was involved in 4.6 final sequences and 0.7 final sequences for 90, having a greater hand in those opportunities than Ramos (3.9 and 0.4) or Varane (2 , 9 and 0.3).

    Being able to start the attacks from the rear plays on the idea that Madrid should be set to thrill the fans under Ancelotti again. Whether they manage to combine entertainment with results, as the 2013-14 team has successfully done, could be another question.

    Related articles

    Comments

    Leave a Reply

    Share article

    Latest articles