Tottenham 0-1 Real Madrid: chalkboards
Real Madrid’s four-goal lead from the first leg was never really threatened in this match.
Spurs started reasonably brightly, getting the ball out wide to Gareth Bale, and they had a few penalty shouts throughout the game. They competed reasonably well in midfield, but lacked spark from their front two – Rafael van der Vaart was quiet, and Roman Pavlyuchenko was disappointing.
Real were always in command – their goal came from a goalkeeping error, and aside from that they rarely looked to break forward. With a four or five goal advantage, and the first of four Clasicos coming up at the weekend, there was no chance of them working harder than they needed to.
In the absence of a real contest at White Hart Lane, a full match analysis is a little unnecessary, but here are some chalkboards from the game, courtesy, as always, of TotalFootball.
Van der Vaart found it difficult to find space ‘in the hole’ against his former side. Xabi Alonso did a good job of tracking him across the pitch, and the Dutchman had to move deeper. The passes he received were frequently in deep positions (and to the right, when he moved out to the wing when Jermain Defoe replaced Aaron Lennon).
Mesut Ozil picked up the ball in more ‘classic’ central playmaking positions, but also scampered to the flanks – as he loves to do, in order to create 2 v 1 situations with his wingers. He covers the whole width of the pitch in his efforts to get the ball.
Real’s main focus in this match was keeping possession, in order to slow the tempo of the match. The key man in this was Sami Khedira, who had an excellent game. Aside from three through balls into the opposition penalty area, and a long ball from his own box which was more of a clearance than a pass, he didn’t concede possession once – he controlled the midfield zone excellently.
There was an interesting contrast between Emmanuel Adebayor and Roman Pavlyuchenko. The former Arsenal man was much more mobile and moved into wide positions to collect the ball. He was happy to hold the ball up and play a backwards pass, whereas Pavlyuchenko wanted to keep moves going forward – summing up the approach of the two sides, and their vastly different situations in this game.
Spurs created the majority of their chances by getting the ball wide and playing the ball across the penalty box…
…whereas Real Madrid tried to work the ball into positions on the edge of the ‘D’:
I hope Spurs outgun City to be in the Champions League again next year. Their matches were far more entertaining than any City game I’ve seen under Mancini. Shame this game was a damp squib.
I’ve really enjoyed watching them (and writing about them) – some great games.
ZM,
How would the acquisition of Drogba affect this Tottenham squad, with the faith that Modric and Bale keep true to their word that they are enjoying their football with the club. Is he not the missing piece? He renders Crouch’s aerial threat expendable given his predatory nature to attach to and hold possession, and the skill set to thrive in the single-striker role. These characteristics seem to best compliment Spurs’ threat down the flanks. Also, he manages to find the net for himself, without a map with some frequency. Does he fit into Tottenham’s current tactical practices without a reprogramming lapse well enough for some “wheeling and dealing”?
Or Berbatov.
Nice call… He also seems like a player who would fit in and might be open to testing the tranfer market in search of minutes and a more glamourous role. Both are on the summer wishlist.
Agree! I would definitely prefer Gareth Bale ahead of Mario Balotelli to play in next season’s Champions League
I nearly lost my tea reading your name, while reading that! With a name like that? It’s obvious who you support.
Yeah, I didn’t even bother watching it – I turned it on at the start of the second half, saw it was still 0-0 and turned it off again (the other reason I didn’t want to watch it was because of the horrible camera angle which was being used to show the game – it ruins watching the game if the TV camera is too low to the pitch…..) – I hope Spurs finish in the top 4, and I hope Liverpool join them there too, both at the expense of Chelsea and Man City……wishful thinking, I know……
Given how bad Mancini is in crucial games I wonder how long City would last in the champions league for? Its so frustrating watching them sometimes because with over 100 million spent on attacking players when they play the big teams they still go for such a boring negative system that doesn’t even get them good results! Makes you wonder what Redknapp could do with them…
I still thought that the match was quite entertaining. Of course the result was never in question, but still we got to see some nice football. Credit to Spurs for giving their all in this match and tie. They just didn’t have the class to be able to cope with Madrid. Madrid obviously had one eye on the classico’s coming up, because Spurs outhustled them at all times.
One grave error my Mourihno, playing ronaldo, ramos and carvahlo was a mistake. Carvahlo is now going to be missing for the 1st leg of the semis against Barca. With Pepe and Carvahlo at CB, this defense is a rock. Without the captain of the defense, Carvahlo, it’ll be more porous for Barca.
Agree on Carvalho loss, very big. Thought he’d cut that out of his game, too.
Well Jose won’t feel too bad about that considering he comes back for the game at the Nou Camp in the second leg. I doubt he would have avoided a yellow at the Bernabeu had he played.
He should have copied what Barca did and get the 2nd yellow in the first leg of the Tottenham tie. But for some reason when Barca players get 2nd yellows on purpose there isn’t a word about it, when Mou and Madrid players do the same thing they get fined heavily, lol.
I noticed that too, completly ridiculous.
Carvalho could simply have avoided that dangerous-looking tackle in minute ~70 when already 1:0 up …
On the other hand, Mourinho could have pre-instructed his endangered players do ‘an Iniesta’ already at the end of the first match when being so comfortably up …
This is the first game that Khedira truly impressed me in. He was everywhere and took Modric out of the game. His pressing and tackling seemed as good as it has ever been. What kind of lineup do you think Mourinho will use in the first Classico? I suspect that he will use the first game to experiment and keep the game tight to avoid any embarrassing defeats that will affect confidence.
I would like to see a lineup of: Iker;Arbeloa,Carvalho,Ramos,Marcelo;Pepe;Alonso,Khedira/Lass;Di Maria,Benzema/Kaka/Ozil,Ronaldo
This lineup will be the best shape to press Barcelona high up the field, but Ronaldo has to take part in the pressing or else the entire tactic wont work. The spine of Carvalho Ramos and Pepe should be able to deal with Messi’s dribbles. Marcelo will have the freedom to get forward from leftback where he is most dangerous. Di Maria will provide right sided width while covering Arbeloa defensively. Ronaldo should stay high up the pitch to exploit the space vacated by Alves. Benzema/Kaka/Ozil as a false 9 to draw the centerbacks even higher up for Ronaldo to make diagonal runs in behind.
The thing I like alot about this lineup is that if Marcelo is becoming overwhelmed defensively early on he can be moved to midfield with Arbeloa to leftback and Ramos and Pepe changing accordingly. But I think that with Khedira/Lass covering Marcelo should be fine.
If Madrid decide to sit deep it will basically be a 442ish shape in defence. But I think sitting deep and trying to play out from the back with as many as 9 Madrid players in their own half when winning the ball back will allow Barcelona to win possession back easier and dominate again (unless Adebayor is used as a targetman to hold the ball up). I am so intrigued with what tactics Mourinho will employ. Let the games begin!
Khedira played a huge role at VfB Stuttgart winning the Bundesliga in 2006/07 and as captain at the 2009 European Under-21 Championship.
I don’t know, why he has not scored yet for Real, maybe just bad luck…maybe his role is more defensive…
Remember, khedira is like 23 years old and he is playing a different role at madrid. Mou is attempting to turn him into a box to box mf I believe, and that will take time. With mou defensive responsibilities come first, so I gave high hopes for khedira in three future.
he has been a box to box player ever since his first appearances in pro football and he shows it frequently for germany. His job at Real at the moment seems to be mostly defensive orientated.
slight problem with your team as Carvalho will be unavailible for the first leg…
Hi – I am really delighted to find this. Good job!
In my opinion Mourinho will definetely start with three central midfield players to shut down the Xavi-Iniesta-Messi triangle, playing Özil on the right, and Ronaldo on the left wing. I think it was a mistake of Mourinho in the first classico in the league to let di Maria play against Dani Alves. You either need a leftback like Marcelo to stop Alves or use Ronaldo to pin him back. I’d prefer the second. I think he tested this formation in on or two league games and it worked out fine. But the bigger mistake was to let Barcelona pack the central midfield, with Messi dropping deep, Real had no control of the part of pitch Barcelona loves to play.
Very looking forward for some exciting Classicos the next weeks.
new super
What do you think about Rafael van der Vaart in the second half of the season? Has failed to keep it going for me. Here’s my conversation from your facebook site:
Tom Johnston – VDV’s form seems to have been on a downward trajectory for a while now. do you think teams have begun to learn how to ‘play’ him?
Jude Ellery – I think partly that, partly he doesn’t look as sharp as he did at the start of the season – and that’s after playing only 70 minutes every game that he has featured in (which is by no means all of them). Were Real so stupid to get rid of him? I think not.
Fitness issues can determine championships/cups just as much as talent. ‘Arry obviously noticed this and tried to protect him, subbing him all the time, but still doesn’t seem to have been enough. Pity.
Is it a superficial lack of fitness or a more ingrained weakness that VDV has? I.e. can it be fixed over the summer with some good ol’ pre season stuff, running up mountains and the like? I reckon it’s something more deeply rooted.
Honestly, I don’t think he’s been as bad as everyone is making out. His injuries have obviously effected him. At the Bernabeu he was never gonna be able to influence the game once Crouch was sent off – last nights game was a pointless occasion cos Real Madrid simply plugged all the holes/gaps that any of the Tottenham attackers could work in (the fact that Bale still ran rings around Ramos shows that he is now simply World Class), and then attacked only when they thought it safe to do so. He didn’t do badly against Milan either, but Spurs were very much finding their way through both of those matches, so Harry decided, based on how those two games were going that VDV wasn’t needed from half-time onwards.
I suppose the ultimate test will be from now until the end of the season in the Premiership. Spurs have got a tough run-in to try and finish 4th. Judge him properly at the end of the season…….
Bale was the stud for Tottenham in this match, and has great pace and crosses from the flank. It’s too bad that his fellow attackers struggled to play with the same quality. If only Lennon would play well consistently on the other wing.
I’ve always found bale to be a bit overrated…saw him as a very pacy player who just looked to kick and chase and whip some crosses into the box. Tonight, however, I thought he was the best player on the pitch. Showed some real class and an excellent first touch that I haven’t ever seen from him. Was one of two spurs players (Dawson being the other) who looked as though they belonged in this tie. World class stuff, making ramos look second rate throughout much of the match….
That said, it’s disappointig that so many of the other attacking players (most notably, VDV and Lennon) have really tailed off as the season has worn on. Not only did it thoroughly knock them out of the CL, but it has also put them on the outside looking in at next years CL, which is a shame becuase they have been fun to watch. It will be interesting to see how the their summer plays out if they don’t qualify for CL football…..
You have to keep in mind that Ramos didn’t want to concede a yellow kick so he went easy in this game. Also Di María who’s good defensively didn’t play and Pepe would help Ramos cope with Bale far better than Albiol did.
‘Arry for England.
I think Spurs should start playing the striker-less formation used by Roma.
VD Vaart can play in the Totti role. Dump Crouch/Pavyliyachenko(Sp?) for Sandro and Huddleston in the Center. Modric further forward, and Bale and Lennon supporting from the wings.
I agree, and I’d also swap Bale and Lennon and use them and inside forwards/ inverted wingers.
That would be awful- there would be a clusterfuck in the middle of the pitch (with Bale and Lennon switching sides). Besides, Redknapp has tried that a number of times and it’s never looked good(too narrow).
Strikerless formations? With Crouch, Defoe, and Pavlyuchenko in the side, that’s pretty much what it looks like, anyway…(joke)
With the yellow card to Carvalho not only him is gone from the first leg against Barca but also the possibility of using Pepe in the holding role in front of the line of four. Pepe has excelled playing that position for Portugal as he did it as recently as last Saturday playing against Bilbao. Mourinho was quick to deny he was testing a formula anti Messi&Co but if this is true or not I think we will not know since Pepe must play CB in the absence of Carvalho. Perhaps in the Royal Cup final next week…
I think that Mourinho should start with a 3 man midfield with Lass/Alonso/Khedira with no AM and a striker. Ozil/Ronaldo can move to right/left as both can play in these positions.
Hence Marcelo will have enough cover to attack forward and exploit Alves’s runs forward. This will help to reduce barca’s possession and more control defensively. Adebayor should start and can be the target man to hold it up for Ronaldo and Ozil to join the attack.
Ofcourse, this will lead to fewer options in attack, but since it is a 2 legged tie, you need a good start. If you dont concede goals to barca in the first half, they can become anxious and push even more forward which can be exploited.
Mourinho’s Inter used a dynamic and compact 4-2-3-1 (as a starting shape) to beat Barca, witch shifted into a 3-4-2-1, 4-5-1, 5-4-1 and 5-3-1-1-0 depending on the situation.
T. Motta in first leg was basically a defensive libero and dropped into the defence line creating 3 men defensive cages for attacks from the right, left and centre.
The problem for Real is the (lack of) defensive awareness of C. Ronaldo (for switching for men marking to zonal marking), Ozil, Benzema.
I was disappointed that Spurs approached the game last night with a counter-attacking mindset, they were never going to score goals on the break against a Real side that was playing deep and not committing many forward. Perhaps next season Redknapp could invest in quicker centre backs and experiment with inverted wingers to give his side a little more tactical flexibility.
It will be very interesting to see what Mourinho does with his defensive line this Saturday. Barcelona have absolutely shredded any attempts at a high line from Real in recent matches.
Real are a direct attacking team and very easily caught out due to the lack of the horizonal ball as a staple in attack. Xabi Alonso may be the only heavily used Madrid player who understands the concept of “cambios de orientacion” (switching play).
I don’t believe Real can continue using a high line against Barelona for this reason, in addition to the lack of defensive awareness from forward players, and will surely sit deeper. Barcelona, especially with the current problems in defense, could be caught for goals by a well-orchestrated counter attacking plan similar to the one Dunga used with Brazil.
Am I alone in thinking Spurs looked like they could get a consolation goal right up to the point when Redknapp stuck Defoe on and made the shape a traditional and stale 442? Spurs have excelled at the 4411 or occasionally 4141 this season, but we’ve seen many times that flat 442’s struggle against the fluency of a 4321 or similar. It definitely could’ve worked, but with Defoe and Pavlyuchenko both seemingly unsure of who was the link man, the chances fizzled out quickly as Real either had noone in the hole or two men in the hole to worry about – far easier to deal with than one and a striker.
I’d have liked to see Van der Vaart dropped, Modric pushed up into his role, with Sandro and Huddlestone solidifying the midfield. Modric and Pavlychenko weren’t exactly on the same wavelength, but they’d surely have created a little more together than Van der Vaart did – he looked more of a passenger with Modric, Bale and Lennon providing most of the thrust to Spurs’ attacking threat.