Zealous wrote:The last time we competed in the Emirates cup one of Arsenal's players gave one of our players a real bad injury

Real Madrid face finishing touches to the first game of the season against Bournemouth, which takes place tomorrow at 20.45. Carlo Ancelotti set to debut in front of the white team, she worked in the morning session set-pieces.

With 20 players available, the technician designed a training in which exercises performed first possession, a touch and two touches later to devote to make crosses from the left. The main players in this exercise were Modric and Isco.

ABHIJIT BHARALI wrote:

REAL MADRID’S PERPETUAL REVOLUTION

Adaptation is the key to survival. For Real Madrid, their aggressive response to the changing phenomena of the modern game has created both financial stability and footballing chaos. As an organization, they are impervious to all forms of attrition except their own fallibility. A magnificent business structure has inflated expectations inevitably forcing the club to stray from its roots and culture. Nevertheless, it has been a tangible source of stability, with Madrid consistently near the top of Europe’s best football teams, though unable to reach the pinnacle expected of them. Seemingly crippled under the weight self-inflicted pressures, the search for instant solutions has ushered in an era of Galacticos and culture where money and talent are flung at problems which require more vision and acute diagnosis than they have ever received. The perpetual revolution of Real Madrid is voluminous testament to the difficulties with the radical use of extreme wealth in footballing contexts, an issue now being understood by nouveau rich clubs such as Paris St Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City. However, as they embark on yet another project, signs of hope emerge. With Carlo Ancelotti, Zinedine Zidane and a reinvigorated core of young players, Madrid hopes to gain the established stability it has so deeply craved.

WHY CRAVE PREDICTABILITY ?
Often, the weakness of great teams is their trust in their own methods, and a reluctance to embrace the adaptive capacity they quite clearly possess. They often fall prey to the ever evolving demands of the modern game with the concomitant attrition which hubris, age and evolution condemning their style to premature antiquity. We have seen it happen to every great team from Michel’s Ajax or Guardiola’s Barcelona; greatness is always unfortunately fringed by the struggle and ultimate failure to stave off impending decline. We search for the root of this tragedy on the weary legs of now old and oft-injured soldiers of the pitch, inside the mind of the expired general on the bench, or within their corroding interaction, once spectacular and wonderful but eventually poisoned by success. The truth is, those we seek to blame are not at fault. They are merely victims of the never-ending tragedy – the rise and fall of all truly great things. Eventually the innovations of the century – Sacchi’s compression of space; Guardiola’s craving for possession – become simplified into something far detached from the original.

Spanish football has endured a difficult year. Barcelona’s thrashing at the hands of Bayern Munchen and the national team’s loss to hosts Brazil in the finals of the confederations cup represent unique occasions over the last half decade where their seeming invincibility has betrayed them. The flaws of both teams have been showcased to the most casual fan, leaving them vulnerable and outmatched against teams of similar talent. Experts point toward an imaginary and elusive decline. Nothing has changed.  Football has responded. Teams around them have discovered their weaknesses and designed methods to defeat them, a dedication only truly great team’s merit.

Florentino Perez since his election in 2001 has always yearned for such greatness. For him, a timeless Real Madrid is the ultimate dream. The fact that he may be the one impeding such immortality is lost on him. Under Perez, the Spanish powerhouse has never demonstrated the perseverance required for true greatness, and likely never will. A radical business model has incited an expectation gap among the fan base, radicalizing the club’s intrinsically turbulent culture. Visions of excellence have been diluted and obscured by the exorbitant pressure the club places itself under for results; a burden under which it almost inevitably crumbles. To the credit of Perez and the institution of Real Madrid, their lack of ascent has been to the footballs pinnacle is never complimented by descent. Rather, they remain locked into a continuous position near the top with nothing capable of inducing either rise or fall. Myopic oscillation is as dangerous as perpetual inertia.

IMITATION IS POINTLESS
Real Madrid lives in almost perennial anticipation of change. In the Jose Mourinhio era Madrid has been accused of employing negative tactics incoherent with their history as pioneers of football as artistic expression and the magnificent talent assembled. Thus, their latest project is conspicuously captivating. Madrid has responded to these criticisms by signing Aisier Illarramiendi, Daniel Carvajal and Isco Alarcon to partner with Mesut Ozil, Karim Benzema and Luka Modric. These stars emblematize an accumulation of talent who resonate the intelligence and understanding of space called for to incorporate the trademarked Spanish style into the club’s attacking toolkit a change seen as highly desirable among both players and fans. Although historically Carlo Ancelotti has not historically promised rhythmic attacking football he has not hesitated in fuelling the palatable excitement surrounding the club with promises of a team that “controls play” and plays “beautiful and spectacular football”.

However, modelling their game within the traditional pass and move paradigm seems unlikely. This is a model is contingent on a degree of tactical discipline and selflessness not exhibited by any of the more important elements of Madrid’s proposed new project. Primary among these discordant forces would be Cristiano Ronaldo whose persistent style and desire to maintain his unbelievable production carries him into dangerous disruptive territory. Under Mourinhio, Ronaldo has dominated the majority of Madrid’s play while the skills of other talented attackers have atrophied while they stand and watch. This ingrained dependence, encouraged by Mourinhio, has inhibited the development of a true team concept in attack and confined other players to auxiliary roles far below their talents. Primary among these are Mesut Ozil and Karim Benzema, whose talents suggest that they would flourish as attacking initiators but whose time at Real Madrid has been characterized only by inconsistency, an alarming lack of tangible development and in Benzema’s case – regression.  Possession dominance is not the medium through which Ancelotti will ignite Madrid’s dreams of spectacular football as it would require discarding the best player in their squad, something they are not willing to do. Rather, Madrid merely wants to learn how effectively use the possession teams readily concede to them more effectively, in order to amplify the potency of their counterattacking style, with which their squad is clearly compatible.

More likely, no clear attacking framework will be employed by Ancelotti. Rather, instead of rigid tactical paradigms, Carlo will place the burden of creativity on his players. However, unlike Mourinhio, he will emphasize spectacular football and at least attempt to ensure that all his players share such a burden rather occupy front row seats to the Cristiano show. As Jorge Valdano – former manager and sporting director at Real Madrid and football’s undying idealist – once said ‘The brain of one manager can’t compete with the infinite possibilities of eleven thinking brains on the pitch. Ultimately, while the concept of a team is very important, you need individuals to go to the next level.’ Ancelotti will not demand any tangible style from his players (though he will appreciate tangible results). Instead he will teach them as much as he knows, receive their ideas openly and select those he thinks best in the hopes that this allows them to make the best decision in every possible scenario on the pitch. With this squad and the time constraints placed on him, this is undeniably the correct approach. They will produce the spectacular football promised, they merely need to discard the chains Mourinhio has left them.

INVINCIBILITY LIES IN DEFENCE
Unfortunately, Madrid may have embarked on yet another project without the realization that defensive teamwork is the key to their success. The same defensive teamwork ushered in by Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan, and which in some form or another has been adapted and supported the exploits of every great and revolutionary team since. For great teams, defence is not about running or “parking the bus”; rather it is about controlling key spaces and denying opponents the opportunity to play as they are accustomed to. Defence is as adjustable as attack; every player has reference points on the pitch which they must use to economize their movement and positioning; the ball, the space, the opponent and his team mates. From the unique situation each player finds himself in each action must be contrived to exhibit the greatest pressure against the opposing teams’ point of weakness. As Sacchi himself notes, “all eleven players must be in an active position, effecting and influencing the opposition”. The ability to achieve this defensive synergy is arguably Ancelotti’s most crucial –and most difficult- task.

The effortless musings of various analysts on defensive structure and the play has engendered illusions of its simplicity. The complexity of this task, particularly in a club such as Real Madrid is often underestimated and the encumbrances levied upon managers’ force them to abandon this philosophy for simple shortcuts which appease players and fans. To say this is what should be done is far different from the action itself. Knowledge and understanding of the philosophies and methods required to implement a holistic defensive scheme have never guaranteed its utilization.  Manuel Pellegrini’s failure with Madrid is the most recent example of a manager whose brilliant ideas and methods have come into grating dissonance with the institution of Real Madrid. He never had a chance. The defensive structural brilliance he achieved with Malaga and Villareal was never even hinted at; the difference was not Pellegrini himself, merely his audience and environment. Without players receptive to the idea of defensive cohesion, without the luxury of time – such ideas will never materialize. Mourinhio did not even bother to embark on such a task, instead extracting whatever he could out of his players in situations where extra defensive effort was needed, but never consistently nor with any degree of true intelligence.

This is Ancelotti’s burden. For Carlo, the first step is to create an environment where players are willing to listen and learn, a task for which he seems particularly qualified. Praise of Ancelotti has been almost exclusively dedicated to his ability to maintain progressive relationships with his players and maintain calm in unstable environments. A magnetic personality, he is universally loved by those around him for the subtlety and grace of his methods. For Maldini, his outstanding trait is his calm, to Thiago Silva his understanding of the player is unrivaled and for Ibrahimovic his “patient and gentle methods” make him the ideal players’ coach. For Perez, these qualities make him the ideal post –Mourinhio choice. His job is to mitigate Mourinhio’s chaos by repairing relationships with the media and among the players, in the hope that this may lead to some degree of harmony and teamwork. Only after this is accomplished will Carlo have the tools necessary to implement a true defensive team concept.

CONTROL
Despite the flexibility Ancelotti will seek to maintain in both attack and defence, he will need to create basic structures outlining roles and responsibilities to guide and inform his player’s movements with and without the ball. Madrid can expect good defensive balance and structure with a midfield which helps cover their individual weaknesses. Essentially, the idea will be strength in numbers as Carlo will attempt to convince all but the two furthest forward members of his attack to cover their space and maintain a defensive structure with two important elements. Firstly, though the employment of an aggressive offside trap will make it difficult for opposing teams to play the ball behind them. Secondly he will seek to compress the space between defence and attack to ensure that teams who attempt to break them down will meet quick successive barriers of resistance. Actual positioning on defence is usually determined by the attacking nature of the opposition, but for the most part Cristiano Ronaldo and the other forward will not be subjected to a heavy workload. Naturally, Mourinhio style tactics with aggressive and early pressing flooding the middle area of the pitch forcing defenders to pass over the top, making the game dangerously unpredictable is something Carlo would like to avoid. Instead, emphasis will be placed on preventing goals rather and recovering the ball instead of accelerating the pace of the game into unstable territory.

The attack is always more attractive in the abstract. What Real Madrid may hope for is an attack that is fluid and adaptable, with the creative burden on creative players such as Benzema, Ozil, Isco and Modric. For the most part these players are able to effectively distribute the ball so as to burden defences with the task of taking account of all of Real Madrid’s world class attackers. However, this is fantasy. Cristiano Ronaldo’s style does not allow for a team which distributes the ball effectively, and more importantly he directly inhibits the effectiveness of auxiliary goal scorers. For them, their inconsistent supply and thankless job erode their desire to do the things necessary to succeed, and places a mental strain weakens their desire to continue.  For Karim Benzema, this has meant descending into a support mentality, where rather than conceive himself as a forward, he is perceived as a support player merely occasionally orbiting Cristiano Ronaldo’s force. The price of Ronaldo’s great consistency is the inconsistency of those who surround him.

For Ancelotti, the task of convincing Ronaldo of his need to take a reduced role in Madrid’s build up is by  no means envious. Likely, in the short term, it cannot be done. Rather, Ancelotti will allow Ronaldo relative freedom while encouraging others operate in a complimentary manner to Ronaldo’s style. For attackers, that means possessing an innate adaptive capacity. When Ronaldo makes a diagonal run into the box, other attackers must occupy the space he deserted and stretch the defence. When he shoots, or attempts to cross they must aggressively pursue the ball into the box. They have limited role and choice, an amorphous footballing existence. Maintaining any degree of consistency among these players will be a special achievement for Ancelotti. His desire for a team that controls play may be an improvement on Mourinhio in the sense that more possession will allow for more involvement of the creative core of midfielders and forwards, but Madrid fans should remain skeptical. This is exactly what Ancelotti failed to achieve in Paris. Like Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo with the support of a magnificent and eager squad will likely be enough to counterbalance the broken and unchangeable attacking framework.

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The tragedy of Jose Mourinhio and the cathartic effect his actions have had on the Madrid elite is perhaps enough to shock Madrid out of the chronic disequilibrium the club has suffered since the turn of the century. Carletto's greatest gift as a coach, his affability, will go a long way toward purging the Bernabéu of its accumulated poisons. Tactically, his laid back approach still dominates. For the sake of continuity he may be inclined to continue with the 4-2-3-1 Madrid employed under Mourinhio and which he himself helped popularize during stints at Parma and Milan. However, he will change according to circumstance and will seek to fit talent even at the risk of never establishing a consistent system. Perhaps this will be the roots of Madrid’s new and better perpetual revolution. The Spanish giants will gladly discard their glamorous discordance to gain the ideal adaptive capacity they have failed to tap into. They hope that this new project will pilot where change is an acute and appropriate response to specific problems faced rather than meaningless money driven oscillation. Until now, this has been an escaping dream, but now, it seems an imminent reality.