UEFA Champions League 2018/19: 3 Reasons why Real Madrid lost to CSKA Moscow

#3. Solari’s tactics

When Solari took over this Real Madrid side, both the players and fans were out of confidence and he has done a good job of restoring some lost hope by taking his side to the 4th position in the Laliga table from the 9th position.

But his tactics, just like his predecessor Zidane, are not quite clear and this has resulted in some poor team coordination. Against CSKA, he opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation in spite of having some reasonable success with the 4-3-3 formation.

Also, Valverde, who is at his best when combining with the Winger on either side of the pitch was deployed as a holding midfielder and he looked clueless while defending whenever CSKA attacked.

In another bizarre decision, Llorente who has impressed everyone with his defensive work was replaced by Toni Kroos and this further weakened the Madrid defence. These are still early days of his stint as a manager and he will be looking to sort out his tactics as early as possible.