Tactical analysis proposition : Real Madrid ⚪️ - Atletico Madrid 🔴⚪️
From the first minutes of the game, Benzema’s drop offs had multiples purposes : the first one, looking for the ball in that kind of space to orientate wide.
When Madrid had the ball near Atleti’s mid 3rd, De Paul jumped out on Kroos and Llorente slide as central defender to form a 3-4-3 shape, to prevent all central build up possibilités.
This passing pattern was the most repetitive one during first half. As Mendy leave too much distance b/w him and Vinicius, Atleti’s passing pattern was accurate to take advantage on lanes, allowed by Vinicius’ jump out.
Atleti’s pressing during the first 20 minutes was high and they managed to shadow Kroos in build up: Vinicius consequently had no central option and lost some possessions.
Second purpose concerning Benzema’s drop off: knowing that Atleti uses a wide first line of pressure, this kind of move can dismantles this type of defensive organization.
Inverted combinations are the most interesting thing to see with RM this season: here, Kroos didn’t hesitate to slide as a Fullback, while Mendy could step up to first disturb manmarking, and second to get closer to Vinicius for short passing circuits.
However, out of possession, distance between Mendy and Vinicius was too important, and Atleti easily overthrew RM’pressing structure to repeat its passing pattern.
Madrid has that capacity to nullify passing angles for ball carrier, especially vertical ones, thanks to an excellent positioning. Here Modric anticipated that vertical passe and initiated offensive transition.
On that transition, Benzema did a relevant diagonal run, and De Paul didn’t scan from the beginning of the counter attack to Vinicius’s cross : as defense was occupied to fix and align itself, no one could have jumped on Benzema. 1-0.
In its own defensive third, Madrid change defense’s shape and turn wide. But a particular thing has to be spot on: to disturb Atleti’s structure (4-2), Modric bypassed his vis-à-vis, while Carvajal came near Danilo. Always a matter of combinations.
Densify one zone then surprise the opponent by orientating to the opposite zone, that was how Madrid bypassed Atleti’s high pressing.
Modric willingly didn’t help to build up in that zone, knowing that long ball was coming.
Modric willingly didn’t help to build up in that zone, knowing that long ball was coming.
Inverted combinations (here Casemiro to compensate Militao’s jump out) also nullified shot angles and constrained Atleti to retreat. Atleti has a strong vertical build up, but when you face a team which lets a thin distance b/w triangle’s midfield and central defense, complicated
For the first 10 minutes, Casemiro dropped as central defender to be in a 3v2. But Atleti (Griezmann-Cunha) annihilated his passing options.
when he changed his positioning by staying behind that duo, it changed a lot, because he could receive the ball and attack that zone.
when he changed his positioning by staying behind that duo, it changed a lot, because he could receive the ball and attack that zone.
To let Vinicius take deep runs on his lane, Mendy is the perfect player to blur defenders, because he likes to move in central space (in or out of possession btw). It forces Llorente to mark and also open a passing angles for Modric.
Kroos particularly appreciates ending up in that zone (orange circle) because he has enough time and espace (Benzema cleverly blocks Cunha’s potential pressing) to orientate build up.
And as Atleti’s midfield was surprisingly disorganized, no individual marking on Kroos to prevent offensive transitions, especially when you know how Vinicius and Benzema combined (pic. n2, main combination pattern b/w both players)
Even when Atleti tried to use width with wingbacks to stretch that Madrid’s central defensive line off the ball, Vinicius came on the same line to form a line of 6.
That’s another example of Casemiro’s successful positioning: behind the first line of pressure, knowing Atleti frequently switches from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 : in one passing sequence they eliminated 4 players.
Felipe fixed Benzema’s dangerous drop offs by pressing him (Mancini vs Zlatan model). as key players (Kroos-Casemiro) were shadowed, the French striker couldn’t bring solutions anymore.
On Madrid’s second goal, I really appreciated Carvajal’s involvement, who opened a passing window thanks to his run.
Madrid nullifying passing angles, episode 120. Felix, as his entrance objective was to navigate in half space and on the centre of the pitch (2nd photo), was constrained to take width to receive the ball.
Inverting roles seems to be anecdotic (Kroos with Modric), but Atleti forwards are disorientated on which player to mark, it’s very smart from RM midfield, especially when you know that solid and well organized off ball structure from Atleti.
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