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Does Zidane inspire Real?
- Updated: October 24, 2016
In his latest column, Sky Sports’ Spanish expert Guillem Balague discusses doubts around Zinedine Zidane, Sevilla’s triumphs under Jorge Sampaoli and how Barcelona are opting for versatility.
Real Madrid just stumbled over the line against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday through Alvaro Morata’s late goal.
It’s a win, but the problem with Real is that they have a coach that doesn’t inspire them to do a lot of work without the ball, doesn’t inspire them to be aggressive and doesn’t inspire them to do such an important part of the game, which is to recover possession in key parts of the pitch.
Real Madrid, even at the Bernabeu, let the opposition play, and it’s more about pouncing when the opposition lose it, rather than Real trying to recover it.
That’s something they have to improve on, but I’m not sure Zinedine Zidane can inspire them that way.
Real had two things that helped them get the late win against Bilbao: One, belief in themselves, especially the ‘epic’ of the last 10 minutes in games at the Bernabeu, which is something that is historical, and two, quality of players. Morata came on with Lucas Vazquez and changed the game, and I think they deserve more time than they are getting.
In that you have to give credit to Zidane. With Lucas, he went from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2, Gareth Bale switched wings – which is where the goal came from – and Athletic felt obliged to defend deeper, causing a mistake.
I would play Morata, who scored a late winner, over Benzema, who is taking a while to get to his best physical form. I know you need game time to get to your top form, but meanwhile, you have a guy in Morata who is at the top of his game – ambitious, hungry to get the ball, hungry to attack the spaces.
I think he could replace either Ronaldo and Benzema in the line-up, and by that I mean he could come in for Ronaldo and Ronaldo come on later, and the same for Benzema.
Ronaldo has been booed a few times at the Bernabeu and he doesn’t understand why. In the last minute he was booed for missing a one-on-one when the crowd believed he should have laid the ball off for Isco.
He has always been individualistic, but you forgive him if he scores goals, which he hasn’t been doing of late. And, as followers of this column know, the relationship between the Real Madrid fans and Ronaldo has always been a bit of a roller-coaster.
Injuries restricting Luis Enrique
With Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba injured, and now Andres Iniesta, it’s making it more difficult for Barcelona to play how they want to.
To add to that, I feel Luis Enrique is preferring to go to the versatility of the system, instead of the essence. So, you see a team who plays in different formations, but not a team that keeps some of the things that made them so difficult to beat, especially the control of the game.
They lost the control against Valencia in 10 …
