Will Style Matter for Pragmatic Zinedine Zidane in 2nd Real Madrid Season?

It was late, it was hot and everyone was exhausted, but Real Madrid had won and that was all that mattered. The how was irrelevant, for now at least. 

Down on the San Siro pitch, soaked in sweat and with euphoria temporarily extinguishing the ache of limbs, Madrid’s players threw Zinedine Zidane into the air. As a manger, the Frenchman had secured the Champions League at the first attempt, propelling Madrid to their 11th European Cup overall, his revival of their season after taking over midway through complete. 

On the surface, this was the essence of Madrid: stars, leaders, grandeur, glory, style, cups. And yet, in a way, it wasn’t quite. 

This had been a curious performance from Europe’s traditional kings. They’d started in a blaze and had gone ahead early, but just when it had looked as though they were ready to romp to the line, they became conservative and reactive.

In the second half, Atletico Madrid established control and then dominated: The ball belonged mainly to them, Antoine Griezmann missed a penalty and Yannick Carrasco levelled things up. 

Barely moving by the end, Zidane’s men made it to penalties to win it. But to get there, they’d conceded more than 52 percent possession to Atletico, per WhoScored.com, sitting and waiting for Diego Simeone’s men, counterattacking the counterattackers. 

Who had seen that coming? In the two previous rounds, Atletico had recorded possession figures of 26 percent, 23 percent, 26 percent and 27 percent in four straight clashes with Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Based on that, no one had expected them to dictate terms to Real. 

Except Simeone and his players. 

“Casemiro offers them defensive steel,” the Argentinian had said at his club’s open media day a week earlier. “I expect they’ll play on the counter, as they have been doing up until now in the competition.” Midfielder Koke had said the same: “[Real Madrid’s] strengths are in defence and on the counterattack. They’ve greatly improved with Casemiro in midfield.”

Such comments could have been interpreted as a challenge from Atleti, daring Real to go for it and expose themselves. But there was also something striking in the observations: Atleti saw Real as functional rather than explosive; they spoke of a change in their cross-city rivals; and in Zidane, Simeone saw a pragmatist rather than a stylist. 

And in Milan, that pragmatism won—which was the only thing that mattered. 

But will that change now?

As Zidane prepares to embark on his second season in charge of Madrid, the question of style is an intriguing one. 

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