Last season, Real Madrid scored a massive 102 goals in the Spanish League, and 16 goals (in 8 games) in the Champions League – more than any other team until that round. This season, after six games in all competitions, they have managed to score a mere 8 goals at an average of 1.3 goals per game. This is in no way idealistic to a club like Real Madrid, where focus is primarily on attacking and scoring goals.
True, Jose Mourinho is the head coach. True, he’s someone who prefers the “safety first” approach. True, the present team is built on a solid backline and a counter attacking approach. True, Higuain and Ronaldo, the two men who had a combined 53 goals between them in the league last season, are hopelessly out of form – but isn’t it still perplexing as to why a team that has the likes of other attacking resources like Di Maria, Benzema, Ozil, are struggling to find the back of the net?
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The Problem
From the outside, it is very clear that Higuain and Ronaldo are yet to find their goal scoring feet. But that alone is not the cause. If one digs a little deep, there’s certainly something wrong with Mourinho’s tactics or maybe there’s something that’s missing. It’s a known fact that Jose Mourinho is one of the best coaches around; but is he really ready to take the Iberian nation by a storm? His defensive approach worked extremely well at Inter and Chelsea. But it sure is not working all too well at the Bernabeu.
The system is just not working well with the players he has at his disposal. They are creating plenty of chances and one would expect Gonzalo Higuain to dispatch most, if not all of them. But unfortunately that’s not happening and the total dependency on Higuain alone to score goals is hurting Madrid badly. Of course there are other resources, the name Cristiano Ronaldo and “goal” could have been used as symonyms last season.
During his tenure, Manuel Pellegrini played Ronaldo and Higuain together upfront. Although many criticized him for using Ronaldo as a striker instead of playing him on the wing, where Real needed width. But yet one could see the impact that Ronaldo used to make, when he was deployed as a striker. When Higuain and Ronaldo played together, there were two deadly strikers for the opponent defenders to keep an eye on. Ronaldo, being the better player of the two, was being marked out and surrounded by defenders. That would give Higuain the space and time to work on the ball and he ended up scoring truck loads of goals. Ronaldo used to chip in with goals as well, mostly on the counter-attacks and from set pieces. But this year, Ronaldo is being played as a conventional winger, which is not delivering the expected output.
Real Madrid is getting the width they lacked last year, but the wing play does not look effective. The reason being Higuain’s inability to lead the line alone play as a lone striker. Seldom does he rush into the six yard box to head in or tap in a cross – a quality that a striker playing alone upfront should possess. The same happened with him in the World Cup. He did score 4 goals in 4 games, but was crowded out in the game against Germany, where he played as a lone striker. He definitely needs support up front because he can’t hold his own there.
The other problem is, Ronaldo being restricted to play as a conventional winger. His cut-in and shoot policy has been terrible this season as the opponents clearly know his game now, which has become too predictable. He has generally been playing on the left. But when he and Di Maria occasionally swap wings, Ronaldo doesn’t take the right wing position, instead takes up the free role behind Higuain which jams up Ozil’s space and forces him to move out wide to the right – thus restricting creativity in the middle and the chance to produce a decent final ball.
So what Jose Mourinho could possibly do to overcome these problems?
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The Solution
It’s easy to think that Real will eventually start scoring as it generally takes time for a new team under a new coach to find it’s form. But Mourinho has to think about making minor tweaks to the system. Since Higuain is struggling up front as a lone striker, why not use another man to divide the scoring responsibilities? This immediately begs the question, who that can be? Can it be Benzema or Ronaldo? Both the options sound interesting and can prove to be effective.
Option 1:
If Ronaldo is used, that would mean less width on the right (assuming Di Maria switches to the left) which can be covered up by playing Pedro Leon who is good at crossing the ball into the box which can indeed benefit Real because Ronaldo is a good target man to aim at. That would also mean Higuain having lesser responsibilities and being his natural self in front of goal. But, that would also mean a slight change in the formation. Real’s defense has been absolutely solid and has conceded only one goal in six games.
So Khedira can be sacrificed so that Ronaldo moves to the forward line to partner Higuain, and Pedro Leon can cover up the right wing, leaving Alonso with the responsibility of the anchorman. Khedira is someone who is being used as an anchorman to stop the counter attacks. But since under Mourinho the attacking players also track back to win the ball, Alonso won’t have too many problems to stop the counter attacks. Besides, Ramos and Marcelo don’t move forward too often, so withdrawing Khedira for Pedro Leon will make the attack look more potent.
Option 2:
On the other hand, if Benzema is played as the striker along with Higuain, Ronaldo resumes his role as the wide man along with Di Maria on the other wing. Ozil will play the free role behind the two strikers. Khedira will be sacrificed to make way for Benzema. Alonso and the defense will have similar responsibilities like the ones in option one, except that Pedro Leon tracks back more than Benzema does. But on the attacking front, the second option looks even more promising as Benzema is an out and out striker compared to Ronaldo.
However, the only problem with the second option is, if one of Higuain or Benzema is out injured for a long time, Madrid will be in trouble – as they’ll have only one out and out striker. But it’s worth taking the risk if Mourinho wants his team to score more goals. Both the options can come handy in games where the opponent will just want to defend and defend for the entire ninety minutes by parking the bus in front of the goal.
It’ll be interesting to see if Higuain and Ronaldo will indeed start scoring goals frequently or if Mourinho will try to change his system. Whatever the case, it is better if Real Madrid starts pouring in goals if they are not to be booed by their own fans. Alas!, even worse – if the white handkerchiefs come out.
The upcoming second Champions League game will tell the story about where Real Madrid are heading on attacking fronts. Watch this space for more as we’ll analyze Real Madrid’s performance on technical basis.