Tactical Analysis on Real Madrid 2-1 Sporting Lisbon

Discussion in 'Spain' started by Covershadow, Sep 17, 2016.

  1. Covershadow

    Covershadow Member

    Aug 30, 2016
    Here is the original link. The full version piece.
    http://www.thesidelinereview.com/real-madrid-vs-sporting-lisbon.html

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    From the very first minute, Jorge’s troops displayed some fascinating play which saw them dominate the ball circulation. Carvalho sent the ball wide to the right back, but Real’s players pressed well and blocked the central access. In response to this, from the half-space, Martins moved wide to create passing lane for the right back. Bas Dost adapted to Martins movement, with the number 9 dropping deep into the vacated half-space.

    Real earned a throw-in, but Sporting managed to regain in seconds and resulted in a throw-in for Jorge Jesus’side. Stong ball-oriented movement in Sporting build-up through the wide areas became quickly obvious. The staggering showed them covering three vertical-coridors with 3 horizontal lines between them.

    Carvalho in the deepest line covered the deeper-area which also allowed more vertical presence. The near side full back and central midfielder duo in the second line was to stabilize the circulation. In the third-line, both wingers took slightly higher position, along with Bas Dost acted as the vertical access.

    As the circulation in the second-line was stable and vertical passing-option wasn’t available, Sporting had been in the structure which allowed them to switch to the underloaded-side using the on rushing far-side wing back to attack the space.
    For whom it may interested in overload-isolate and creating space strategy, take a look at these links, from Jed Davies:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2_APOku5Gw


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHyHk0VCDAE

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    1st block on the left : overloaded the touchline as it had two possible purposes. First, dragging Real’s players to the wide are and destabilized centrally. Two, the overload was the support for their penetration through the ball-side area.

    2nd block in the center: to support the aforementioned overload block by engaging two Real’s defenders so they stayed centrally.

    3rd part: the cover-player. Adrien Silva stayed close to the overload area whilst maintained the access to Dost-Martins and Casemiro, as well as protected any threat through the center.

    4th part: the back line. Pereira, in the far half-space, stayed deeper to cover Cristiano Ronaldo. This positioning allowed him to cover Cristiano from blind side without staying too close (side by side, for example), as it might exposed him in a 1v1 situation.

    Ruiz roamed from the right half-space to the left one made a 1-2 combination with Zeegelaar. As you can see Carvalho passed it forward to César. To counter this Modric managed to intercept and initiated the counter through Ronaldo. The positioning of Ronaldo to Pereira and the whole structure in this situation benefited Sporting which helped them to counterpress and make immediate recovery.
    After the recovery they moved to the right side again, through circulation and off the ball movements among the attacking players this opened a passing-lane from the wide area to the center (César). This passing-lane was available due to the dynamic triangle structure established by Silva + Martins combined with Dost off the ball.

    Silva, the ball carrier, was in the half-space. A run to the right touchline made by Martins managed to drag Modric and Marcelo at once. The diagonal run by Dost from the center to the right half-space made it easier for Silva to play the ball to César, in the center, as Dost dragged Ramos away and also invited the attention of Casemiro to the left which created more space on his right side, where César had been ready to receive. César failed to score, this scene showed a cool practice of overload-isolate strategy by the Portugal side.

    Sporting Defensive Strategy

    Sporting focused more on the middle block rather than the high one. This was an ideal approach as it reduced the space possibly utilized by the speed of Ronaldo or Bale.

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    By the time they are able to press high it was Bas Dost who took the opponent’s central defender with one of the 8 (César) who would go for Casemiro. When Real beat the initial press, Dost would drop to 10 position and César back to the middle line.

    Dost positioned himself next to Casemiro. At times, he blocked Casemiro by staying in front of him, however he also stood behind him to deny an entry pass. Dost often caught allowing space for the central defenders of Real or Casemiro, whilst the central midfielder defended the center as both wingers occupied the half-spaces. This situation deflected Real’s circulation to their wing backs.

    When the wing back received the ball and moved forward then approached the central line, Real’s ball-side wide man would drop to pick the ball. In this situation, Sporting winger moved wide and his movement would be followed by the wing back whose the press was oriented to Real’s ball-side winger.Sporting’s ball-side central midfielder responded it with a ball-oriented approach. He was needed to support the touchline-press and blocked the possible pass behind his cover-shadow.

    With this, Real would have to pass it back to the back line. In order to narrow the chance of Real’s back line in generating vertical pass, the ball-side central midfielder would go further forward to close the passing-lane of the central defender.

    Sometimes, Real managed to find the away into the half-space in the opponent’s middle-third. From this area, Real tried to exploit the gap between the wing-back and central defender. The ball-near wide forward moved wide to drag the wing back, created space for other forwards to run into the vacated space.

    Sporting 3 central midfielder-shape enabled them to press the wide area but stay compact centrally. This can be observed when Gareth Bale moved inward in Sporting’s middle-third and Carvajal covered the the right touchline. Lisbon’s player to follow Bale was Ruiz. With 3 central mids Sporting’s ball side 8 would be able to press in an option-oriented approach as he pressed Bale and still maintained his access to Casemiro or Real’s nearby 8. The other positive side of this press, it had also put any Real’s central player behind his cover-shadow.

    As previously mentioned when Bale moved inward (higher or deeper), Real’s wing back went forward. Prior to the interchange, the wing back stayed on relatively same horizontal line to Bale in the second line. This positioning had its own purpose.

    One, it was intended to drag the press of Sporting’s wing back. The second one, Real tried to make use of it to release the third-man run strategy which generated by the dropping-deep movement from the ball-side wide-man and the wing back as the “third-man” by running vertcally toward the space.

    On one hand, Sporting Lisbon middle-block at times could benefit from the positioning of Real’s wing backs by trapping them. The trap was able because Sporting’s wide player kept the distance to the opponent’s wing back. This was the natural consequence of their mid-block behavior. Against Real’s build-up in the middle-third, Sporting’s wide player would wait till the pass approached Real’s wing back before they released an intense press.

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    On the other hand, it might put them into trouble when Real able to find the space and created a one-on-one situation. The scene from 12:30 was teh evident. As usual, Sporting sit on their mid-block and Dost allowed space for the opponent to circulate.

    When Modric with ball on the central line, César made a half-press, Dost was around. Weirdly, with such situation took passive action and made no press. Modric passed to the left to Ramos. When Kroos received a pass from Ramos on the half-space, Marcelo took the same position as decribed on the picture above. Martins made a half-onward-press to Marcelo, waiting for the pas to come, whilst Silva pressed Kroos. This Marcelo positioning and Martins press, in turn, opened a gap between the right winger and the full-back behind him. A pass from Kroos to Bale saw how easy Bale tricked Pereira with his skill

    El Real Attack

    In their effort to break the Sporting defense Real tried to gain access through the half-space. What they managed to find were the players near the half-space and progressed from there. The problem with this was that there wasn't enough of a strong structure to support the 18-yard box penetration.

    For example, when Benzema received the ball on the half-space and made forward run, there was only one option for him, which was over on the wing. When the wide player cut inside to the center, again, there was too little support for Real to cause more havoc.

    Sporting central compactness was hard to play through, but Real’s attacking structure itself played its own part in why they were finding it difficult to break down the opponent. Real were too much wing-oriented without balancing with proper overload and spacing. This structure had weakened their circulation and they responded it by playing it horizontally in most such scenes.

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    No 3rd passing lane and adequate overload. Had Dost taken deeper position he may have caused Real more trouble. The alternative strategy against such compact side is to consistently position the outfield players between the vertical space of the middle and the back-line. Like the way Tuchel’s Dortmund did in the match against The Foals in 2015/2016 or Barcelona in their clash against Roger Schmidt’s B04 from the same 2015/2016 season. Something Real hardly displayed throughout the match.

    A good match for Sporting, a game in which they deserved at least one point. Jorge Jesus side displayed a strong central control defensively which saw the defending champions in so much trouble offensively.
     

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