Real Madrid slipped to a 2-1 defeat against Celta Vigo at the Santiago Bernabeu after a spirited performance from the visitors. This was the Los Blancos’ second defeat in a row after losing 2-1 to Sevilla in La Liga.
Manager Zinedine Zidane opted to start with Cristiano Ronaldo, Marco Asensio and Lucas Vasquez as the front three but eventually brought on Alvaro Morata and Karim Benzema as the game wore on, but the Madrid club could not win on the night. Real Madrid have now lost two after their record-breaking 40-game unbeaten run.
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Here are the talking points:
#1 Celta’s man marking and tactics
Celta Vigo manager Eduardo Berizzo was an assistant manager to the infamous Marcelo Bielsa at Chile and if there was a good example of the effect that Bielsa had on him, it was against Madrid. Celta lined up with a seemingly dynamic 4-2-3-1 that became a 4-3-3 without the ball, to match Real Madrid man for man on the pitch. What was particularly striking was the relentless man marking by Celta’s midfielders on the Madrid central midfielders.
Kroos, Modric and Casemiro were man marked by Diaz, Radoja and Hernandez on numerous occasions, while the Celta trio also harried them constantly when they were on the ball. Of course, the Madrid midfield trio could dribble out of trouble and create openings but it was made much more difficult for them by the Celta Vigo midfielders. As a result, Real were made to go wide and put in crosses while Celta got bodies back quickly, getting numbers in the box.
The Celta defence stayed tight on the Madrid forward line, kept shape throughout the game (although it was slightly off at times) and made it difficult for Los Blancos to break them down. They weren’t pressing high, it was a medium press, but they played with high intensity and made life very difficult for Real Madrid to score.
#2 Casemiro’s advanced role
Zidane opted to invert the midfield triangle with Casemiro playing in a more advanced role than he usually does and Toni Kroos and Luka Modric sitting deeper in the 4-3-3. This wasn’t the best move by the Frenchman.
Casemiro found himself playing box to box, rather than his natural holding midfield role at Real Madrid. He took shots and played through passes while Modric and Kroos didn’t push forward as regularly as they usually do, which was a complete mismatch.
It was 50-50 in either role for Casemiro, although he did do a satisfactory job and broke down quite a few counter attacks. However, if he was played in his more accustomed role, anchoring the midfield, he would have possibly stopped the counters that led to the goals.
#3 Celta’s counter attacks and Iago Aspas in the form of his life
Celta’s game plan became quite apparent in the game as they repeated it quite often. After forcing Real out wide, sucking their full backs forward, and then defending the crosses, they broke on numerous occasions, exploiting the space on the flanks.
Although they could muster only six shots in the game with only four on target, they used their chances effectively and scored the two decisive goals needed to win the game. Iago Aspas led the line as the lone striker extremely well causing Sergio Ramos a world of bother, he even got the Madrid captain booked and wound up.
He dropped deep and made runs when necessary, keeping Varane and Ramos on their toes. He then took his chance clinically and found the back of the net after the ball fell to him. He has now scored 13 goals in his last 13 games and is in the form of his life.
#4 Marcelo’s mistake and recovery and Cristiano Ronaldo’s poor game
Marcelo is one of the best left-backs in the world, and on his day proves it, but against Celta, he had a Jekyll and Hyde game. For an otherwise outstanding defender, he made a strange and weak mid-air, back-heel clearance to Bongonda’s cross that fell straight to Aspas who smashed the ball into the Madrid net.
He should have dealt with the cross better but that being said, the ball was behind him. Maybe if he had positioned himself better, he could have averted the danger, but he was tracking back at speed.
However, he did make up for his error by scoring a brilliant volley soon after the Aspas goal. It was a powerful strike that deflected off a Celta defender and flew into the net.
Meanwhile, up front, Cristiano Ronaldo had a rare poor game by his high standards. He had a good chance in the first half to give Madrid the lead. Nine times out of ten he would have buried that chance, but his shot was scuffed. Celta nullified his goal threat by marking him tightly at all times. His other chances were not even half chances and they were very few in the game bar a couple of shots from distance.
#5 Abject defending by Real for the second goal and Zidane’s tinkering
Real Madrid under Zinedine Zidane have a relatively questionable defensive record, although they went 40 games unbeaten, they’ve simply outscored the opposition and not kept it as tight at the back as they would have liked. They have now conceded 39 goals in 31 games – an average of 1.26 goals a game – while keeping only 6 clean sheets in all competitions thus far.
Calling the Madrid defence all over the place for the second goal against Celta would be an understatement; it was shambolic.
The gap between Varane and Ramos was as big as the grand canyon. After they lost the ball they could not sort themselves out quickly enough and conceded what would be the winning goal for the visitors. Zidane also tinkered further in this game after going a goal down by switching to a back three and playing a 3-4-3 with only one wing back after he brought off Marcelo, putting Benzema, Morata and Ronaldo up front.
A goal was needed, but the formation was quite odd and the switch to a back three, like he did in the game against Sevilla, did not help their cause to great effect. Zidane should probably stick to the formation that works best for his side rather than attempting to change things drastically.
