Galatasaray 1-6 Real Madrid: Isco and Di Maria’s central role crucial in Ancelotti’s new system

Isco celebrates after scoring

Carlo Ancelotti’s choice of starting Gareth Bale against Villareal coincided with Madrid being blown away completely by the Yellow Submarine in the first half. It was the manager’s early changes in Khedira and Di Maria that stabilized the Blancos in the 2nd half and at least earned them a point. Carlo didn’t dare to repeat his bravados in the tough trip to Turkey, as Madrid started their ‘La Decima’ campaign in glorious style.

Ancelotti brought back Khedira in the centre with di Maria replacing Bale on the right. Arbeloa returned to the team but at left back, with Carvajal the more preferred candidate at right back. Ronaldo continued to be played in his newly instated position as a Centre Forward, with the out-of-form Benzema playing second fiddle to the Portuguese.

Galatasaray have been a thorn in Madrid’s Champions League campaigns for long, and Terim named a very attacking line-up. Choosing to play a two man strike-force of Drogba and Yilmaz is brave enough, but Terim also made Wesley Sneijder to play a very attacking No.10 role. Felipe Melo lined up in midfield against Madrid’s duo of Modric and Khedira, with Riera at left back still looking like Gala’s weakest link.

Ancelotti has been known to change around shapes of his team throughout the season, and similar to his PSG days, Carlo seems to prefer a two pronged attack at Real too. Just as he converted Lavezzi from a left winger to Ibra’s strike partner in Paris, Ronaldo has now been shifted to centre forward. On paper, this has conveniently been backed up by the entry of Isco on the left wing, and the young Spaniard has shown proved his mettle immediately.

Playing Ronaldo and Benzema upfront means that Carlo cannot expect any sort of midfield support to be provided by either of the two. In fact, Ronaldo’s performance against Gala in the first half was a highly lethargic one, as the Portuguese rarely cared to track back with either of the two advancing centre backs. Benzema, on the other hand, showed a better ethic as he continually ran the channels and dropped off into deeper and wider positions to receive the ball. Ronaldo’s only off the ball movement was to win headers to long goal kicks in the centre.

With the front two isolated, Ancelotti had to entrust either of the wingers to do a big job centrally. Isco came to the fore in this respect, as the youngster spent much of the time as the tip of the midfield trio. Both Modric and Khedira were forced to sit deep in midfield due to Wes Sneijder’s attacking play, and this left the area between them and the front two empty for Melo to boss. Isco drifted into this area easily and was aptly supported by Di Maria drifting in from the right wing. It was actually Di Maria, much more than Isco, who drifted central and this was mostly due to the astonishingly superb support Carvajal was providing on the right wing. Albert Riera had his hands full while defending against the right back, and thus rarely troubled Di Maria to track back. Eboue on the other hand attacked with aplomb, though not much of this was fruitful; but this kept Arbeloa limited to a defensive role. This made Isco and at times Benzema to cover on the left hand side of attack. So all in all, Madrid shifted into a 4-4-2 while on the ball, with all the width coming only from Carvajal on the right.

While these are early days for Madrid’s attackers to gel well and the goals are only going to increase from here, it was the defensive midfield and centre of defence that looks shaky. Terim played a very apt tactic of not pressing down Madrid’s centre backs Ramos and Pepe. As neither of the two are really good ball-playing centre backs, often their best option was to find Khedira or either of the two full backs.

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So Terim made Drogba and Yilmaz to cut out Pepe and Ramos’s route to the fullbacks by positioning the two strikers higher up the field. And similarly, Sneijder was positioned tightly onto Khedira in the centre. In fact, Sneijder was often the furthest forward through the centre on counters, and his runs into the channels behind Pepe were able to beat the offside trap easily. Galatasaray’s 4-3-1-2 in the first half was particularly impressive against such a shambolic defence, and Modric in a very Van der Vaart-like manner showed his inadequacy in defensive marking while letting Melo run past him repeatedly.

Madrid’s first goal came about when Ronaldo shifted to the right side of front two. This saw an easier route for Isco to progress through the centre, and a long ball from a now central Di Maria was expertly controlled and finished by the 21-year-old. Despite Madrid’s early striker, Galatasaray were pretty much in the race until Drogba got injured.

Drogba’s exit saw Terim shift to a lone striker based 4-4-1-1 and again Sneijder was seen in a fluid No.10 role. In fact, much of Sneijder’s role now was to pull away from Khedira in the centre and drift into the space behind Carvajal on the right. This movement brought about Yilmaz’s chance of a free header while the score was still 1-0. But from then on, Gala suffered a loss in physicality upfront and preferred to play more from the wings.

Terim’s change to bring on Bruma posed a much more direct threat, and the 18-year-old looked quite dangerous in attack. But Madrid’s defence has always been quite sturdy when attacked at directly, and their susceptibility to cover crosses from the wings was visible in Gala’s lone goal of the night.

Once Real got the 2nd goal from the Turkish side’s mistake, it was all about how much can Gareth Bale’s entry affect the game. Bale came on for Isco and slotted into the right wing role, which sent Di Maria to the left. The Argentine was still seen drifting central to overload the midfield alongside Khedira and Illarramendi. But Bale on the right was providing the directness that was missing all night. Though the Welshman was not 100%, which was stressed upon a million times by Gerry Armstrong, but he was still able to beat Riera on the wing. But more interestingly, he drifted into a No.10-ish role when Madrid were on the ball, and was able to play in Ronaldo into the channels. This resulted in 2 goals in the last 10 minutes for Madrid, with Carlo’s men now in a shape close to a 4-4-2.

Ancellotti eventual XI seems to be the current starting line-up with Bale instead of Di Maria. This sees Luka Modric in the double pivot with Khedira, and Isco providing the much needed bite by drifting into the No.10 position. On paper, this shape looks to be a pretty straightforward one, but it is Ancelotti’s choice of players in the attacking positions which seems to be a bit off at the moment.

Player of the match: Dani Carvajal

Flop of the match: Burak Yilmaz