FYI here's the replay of the goal (starting at the 2:00 mark). Casemiro should have picked up the trailer, that was his man, but I don't think he saw him. Lucas should have let him know. Not sure who Ramos was marking, but I think by the time he saw him, he realized it was probably too late to make a challenge on the ball. All around, poor communication.
Noticed that too. Never expected Nacho to be quite this good -- instead of being a peripheral squad player, he's a vital member of the rotation at this point.
I'd keep the 4-3-3 and tell Lucas and Bale to drop back more and help so essentially a 4-5-1 off the ball, which is essentially how we ended the game when Isco was brought in.
4-4-2 made sense. Bilbao can't do anything with possession except get it wide and cross it in. With 4-4-2 we have extra coverage on the wings and were able to pressure the crosses more and relieve the CBs. They were crowding us in midfield and we were starting to be pinned back anyway. The other thing Zidane could have done was take off one of the front three and put Isco in there to help retain possession. I think either of those strategies could work, but Zidane used one of the two and it worked. Bilbao just aren't a very good side with the ball IMO. They're Atleti-lite. Might as well let them have the ball. I hope Barcelona get Valverde because the guy seems to be closer to Simeone ball than what Barcelona are used to.
Amazing match from Ronaldo, Benz and Navas did extremely well to redeem himself, some exceptional saves. Hope he builds on this going into the UCL
You could have beefed up the wings without taking out Modric. You take him out, you are not only conceding possession, you're taking out your only midfielder that can carry the ball out of the midfield, and our best passer under pressure. You take him out, you need to bring in Isco or Kovacic to compensate, which is what he eventually did because he realized we were struggling to get the ball out of our half when we won it back.
I didn't say he didn't. His goal came after we were already ahead in the 110th minute. Last year's final our main heros were Ramos and Casemiro.
It was good to see Benz take on defenders today. That's what made him so impressive at Lyon. I thought he had lost that pace as he hardly tries to take on defenders these days. Dunno what you meant by that. His goal was the important go ahead goal 2-1. Atletico broke down after that. Could have gone to penalties otherwise. And he helped Ramos become the hero with flick on. Every assist, goal matters in such tight, big games.
Inaki Williams was on the right against Marcelo, his pace was an issue, the idea was to put Bale in the midfield in front of Marcelo to make sure that even when Marcelo pushed up there was enough pace down the flank to cover Williams. You can argue about right and wrong, but Zidane was clearly thinking logically about the game. I am not so sure it was a 442 when we made the Bale switch. Looked like a 433 with Bale on the left of a midfield trident and Ronaldo ahead of him, Lucas on the right and Benzema in the middle.
It means that for 4-4-2 you need creative wide players which are highly invested in build-up play, especially if you play with double pivot of Casemiro / Kroos. Bale and Lucas are not such players. You will be unable to hold possession, let alone create anything meaningful with it. Also with it, you will suffer defensively as Madrid did to the point i thought we are playing with player less. Fullbacks continued to suffer, and i dont see how Modrić / Lucas swap could change that. If this was the reasoning behind decision, it would be expected that Zidane would remove Benzema / Ronaldo, instead of CM - a crucial one on top of that.
I dont disagree with his observation, i disagree with his reaction. If you want to support fullback, take forward out and replace him with additional midfielder. And not vice versa.
Which midfielder in our squad is fast enough to keep with Williams if Marcelo is upfield? The idea was to pull our fastest player out of the forward line into midfield, and bring on a fast forward to replace the lost pace. It was good management by Zidane, even if Williams continued to cause trouble.
Pretty much this. Another example of how people who say Zidanr is too rigid or tactical inept, don't know what the hell they're talking about. We were getting killed on the wings without having a presence. Which is why Lucas was the right substitute. There was no way Casemiro should have been subbed, we needed him. Kroos has more grit that Modric so we had to go with him. Bale was struggling, but like you said the idea was to get him to help Marcelo on the wing. Lucas would help with Munian on his side. He again made a gamble taking out Cristiano for Isco, but that was to defend the last minutes and because he assumed Bale would do more running to end the game. Not perfect by any means but Zidane knew what he was trying to implement and it worked. That is a credit to him. I just wish we wouldn't transition to defending so deep, so early in matches.
Marcelo was interviewed post match and said it's a priviledge to play next to Casemiro and that he's one of the best midfield players in the world for him.
He was continuously urging them to push the line out. His hand gestures were quite clear. I think it's just natural for a team defending a lead to subconsciously drop in towards the end of a game.
The best thing to limit players like Williams is with proper positioning / team tactics. Take his space away and he is dead in the water. Congesting midfield, which offers support for fullbacks does that perfectly. But if you insist with fast enough rhetoric, i would imagine that Kovačić is fast enough and more tactically suited to chase Williams than Bale or Lucas.
Zizou talked about this post game. Modric substitution: “We wanted to play Lucas Vázquez in the [midfield] line and defend more in a block to have more balance. That doesn’t mean that we sat back to wait for them, but the opposite: it was to achieve more balance because we were playing a bit further back in the second half, especially at the end. With two up front we were looking to play a bit closer together and we sent on Isco and Morata because Cristiano and Gareth had given it everything. When you’re running a lot up front it’s difficult. Isco and Morata did very well.” http://en.as.com/en/2017/03/18/football/1489861075_442750.html
This requires two things. A deep block and stopping Marcelo going forward. Even then it's not guaranteed to stop him because you can still find a 1v1 situation with Marcelo if you stay wide enough. That's not a good solution IMO. Sounds great in theory, but Guardiola's theories at Man City in recent months probably sound great too. As it was, Marcelo still went forward and could have decided the game if he hadn't missed that chance. I accept that Kovacic would probably have been a similar kind of move, but I very much doubt he is as quick as Bale.
I answered that question in my post. He couldn't take out Bale for what he was attempting to do. Cristiano and Benzema were both playing very well. It was a pick between Kroos or Modric. He must have felt Kroos would be more solid defensively in the set up.
Massive win considering the brutal schedule waiting for us. Yeah the subs didn't make much sense for me and I still question Zizou's game-management, but again I'll take the win & positive performances from guys who were criticized lately (Navas, Casemiro..). I'm surprised there is no documentary out titled "Walking Piece of Trash". It's almost unimaginable that Raul Garcia and Diego Costa were playing at some point for the same team. We never really appreciated the amount of restraint our team needed to have to put up with these two's bullshit. If I were playing against them I'll most likely get sent off in 00:24. **** you! **** you! If you are capable of similar performances why don't show it more often? The funny thing is I'm already too familiar with Benzy Cycle, he will have a run of terrible games, then he will be your best player in one game, so good that it will left your hopes so high that makes you think "this could actually work" then he will stink up the place probably as soon as post-international break. I'll be very happen to be proven wrong...