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What Control?
Xabi Alonso wants to control the middle of the pitch. He wants to control space in defensive transition. He wants to exploit space in offensive transition. He wants to control possession and limit the opposition’s opportunities to hurt
his team. Control is deliberate. It requires patience and careful study. It is not just about running as much as possible but understanding where you need to be at a given point in time. We see this when we watch well-coached sides, they seem to already be in the correct position to deal with an attack. We’ve seem teams do this against us successfully. We’ve seen teams play through us like they ran drills on exactly how to break our specific team. Meanwhile our team looks like they have to figure it out on the night. They don’t seem to know where they need to be half the time.
Arda, Aurélien and the Great Tactical Chasm
Aurélien Tchouaméni
Xabi Alonso came in knowing his trusted lieutenant would be Aurélien Tchouaméni. He did not give much thought to the Frenchman’s limitations. It is true that the defensive midfielder has been one of the bright sparks in the squad so far this season but he is really not a great firefighter. The amount of times he has arrived late to the scene of the fire is extraordinary. Some of the blame is on Xabi and some of it on the player himself. The player tends to forget where he is on the pitch and sometimes forgets his job entirely. Xabi Alonso is asking him to be a hybrid DM-CB. This role is good on paper but useless in defensive transition. It makes sure that the opposition face no pressure in midfield at we are 2 holding players against 3 or 4 opposition players with Tchouaméni free to not mark anyone as he is too deep to put pressure on the ball, this creates so much space between the lines. If Tchouaméni pressed, we would still concede chances but we’d be better off as the opposition would always be rushed. Now they get to have all the time in the world to make it look like a training ground routine. Also we cannot improve our pressing if we don’t do it. Xabi Alonso’s tactics are stretching Tchouaméni and creating difficult situations throughout games. The other noticeable issue with this dropping into defence approach is that it has done very little to help us defend the wide areas. Just let Tchou cover the flanks like a normal DM so that the CBs have a predictable game in defensive transition. Arda and Tchouaméni are supposed to be the balance in midfield for control off the ball with Tchou being the enforcer and on the ball with Arda being the controller. This has clearly gone to hell.
Arda Güler
Arda is a special talent. A technically brilliant player. Great control of the football and just amazing technique. He also has a really good football brain. I absolutely love to see him in his element. He’s wonderful. He can see the pitch better than everyone in the squad. That may not be saying much but it’s a fact. He is not great physically but that is not his biggest problem. His biggest problem is dealing with pressure when facing his own goal. Once he improves this aspect of his press resistance, he should be able to take the next step. My biggest issue with Arda is that he is not excelling where he has the advantage.. His passing and tempo management have been poor. Not passing accuracy but timing and choice. It has deteriorated so much that one wonders if he has been told to force the pass to certain players or sit on the bench. The most obvious ones are the biggest magnets in the team in Jude and Kylian. Arda will pass the ball to them when they are marked and they make an awful lot of bad decisions in those areas. Arda then gets exposed. He doesn’t give himself time to manipulate the opposition and he becomes more and more desperate and starts to force passes leading to us being unable to use possession effectively with him on the pitch. He needs to learn to use Jude and Kylian as decoys. So the kid still has a lot to improve though I am not worried about his work off-the-ball; his mentality on-the-ball needs to improve. He needs to be assertive and protect the ball even if it means protecting it from his teammates. Kroos was brilliant at that.
Xabi’s Plan then Dies with the Arda and Tchou experiment. The contingency of having Edu instead of Arda is not a sustainable solution on its own. It requires a re-balancing of the midfield 3. That is, Fede cannot start in that midfield 3. It will work in some games but Fede is not conducive to possession play. Xabi’s tactics so far are exposing Arda and Tchou instead of elevating them even if Tchou has had good performances, one just has to watch the way we concede chances to understand the tactical flaws in Xabi’s use of the duo. This is not a player problem, it is a manager problem. The player always has limitations, the manager must put the player in a position to express themselves without amplifying their weaknesses.
Huijsen, Trent, Carreras and the midfield bypass
Huijsen, Trent and Carreras are very useful for passing, build-up and ball-carrying which allows us to bypass an intellectually lazy midfield. This is not sustainable as the opposition can quickly adjust to passes being played directly into the final third. We have seen on many occasions where Huijsen’s efficacy deteriorated during a game because the opposition could anticipate he’s going directly into the final third. We need a cerebral passer in midfield to make it work. Patience on the ball so that we can manipulate the opposition and make good use of the ball skills our defenders possess. This would indirectly help our ability to defend transitions as patience allows for better and more optimal positioning in and out of possession.
Huijsen and Arda represent Real Madrid among the world’s best young talents
Pre-Match Analysis
Ambiguity In Alonso’s System
I have outlined above the ambiguity in Xabi Alonso’s approach. I will succinctly defend Xabi’s approach by simply stating that the ambiguity is necessary for fluidity even though the players do not yet understand it or trust each other implicitly for it to work. They keep trying to do each other’s jobs instead of focusing first on their own primary duties.
The team’s injury issues forces the manager to adapt. We are likely to see more similarities with Carlo’s Real Madrid as Xabi seeks to mitigate injuries and field a strong XI. Xabi has quite a few options for his midfield setup with Ceballos and Arda likely vying for a spot. Gonzalo Garcia could be in with a shout to replace Kylian in the CF role.
A Possible 4-3-3/Diamond Variation
The diamond would in this case allow the team to overload the midfield due to Jude dropping deep and Rodrygo’s tendency to drift inside. This would free-up Vini to make those runs in behind the opposition as they get sucked in towards the ball. It would also allow Vini those 1v1s with a lot of space. The challenge would be managing the flanks in defensive transition and maintaining aggression off the ball to limit Betis’ chance creation. Jude, Vini and Rodrygo dovetail well together but haven’t played like this together in a while. It might go horribly wrong or it might be brilliant. Camavinga’s discipline would be key in helping Tchouaméni do the dirty work while also allowing Arda or Ceballos to play more freely.
