Whenever I have watched Real Madrid this season I got the feeling that more often than not they played on their left side. I found this interesting because Madrid's most creative player in terms of dribbling and creating crosses is Athenea del Castillo, who has usually played on the right this season. In this post I look at this theory and the difference in meaningful possession in Madrid's games against Sevilla and Real Betis which they won 3-1 and 1-0 respectively.
Two games is a very small sample, and I don't have access to match data, so I made up my own criteria to judge how much Madrid plays on the left versus the right. Splitting the field in half vertically, I counted how many times in both games Madrid passed the halfway line on the left and right sides with a pass or dribble that maintained possession upon crossing the line. I also counted how many attempted crosses (included crosses that were blocked) were made on each side. These measurements are far from perfect, but they are all I had. Against Sevilla, Madrid crossed the halfway line on the left side 46 times and 27 times on the right side. Against Betis, they crossed 34 times on the left and 16 times on the right. Madrid attempted 4 crosses from the left and 5 times from the right against Sevilla. They had 13 attempted crosses on the left and 7 on the right against Betis. This shaky data supports my theory that they do play more on the left. It also passes the eye test when in the photo below the center back has a passing option and space to her right, but without second thought keeps it on the left even though it is clear that the majority of Betis' players are on that side, so there is space elsewhere.
I believe Madrid do this because of the profiles of the players that play on the left side. Left center back Ivana Andrés is the most willing of the center backs to advance the ball on the dribble, midfielder Claudia Zornoza is an important ball progresser who tends to play on the left, and new signing left back Sofie Svava makes attacking runs into the final third. The passing range of Zornoza is important for Madrid when they want to take advantage of the defensive shift that other teams do to try and smother their left sidedness. In both games she had excellent switches to find Athenea who was free on the right side.
As I just mentioned, Svava makes a lot of attacking runs, and Madrid plays a lot on the left, but it feels as if they could take more advantage of Svava in the attacking third further still. She often keeps the width on the left side with left forward Olga Carmona shifting inside, and will join Carmona on the forward line to create numerical advantages. Svava did this in both games and it can be seen below.
Svava has just signed with Madrid in the January transfer window, so it could take time for her movements to become a staple of their attack, but it looks promising.
Against Betis, Madrid struggled to build meaningful possession unlike in the game against Sevilla. Midfielder Maite Oroz was sorely missed against Betis. Oroz has the ability to play quickly, make herself available between lines, and provided an extra number in the midfield. She played a number 10 role against Sevilla and was fantastic. There were more passes amongst the midfield players in the Sevilla game and Oroz was the catalyst for that. In the photo below, her clever movement in the defender's blindside behind Sevilla's midfield line of 4 allows her center back to find her and advance possession.
A great example of how the midfield connected was in the buildup to Zornoza's goal. Maite picks up the ball and the midfield line steps to pressure her. However, they forget about Zornoza who makes a run on the defender's blindside. Maite finds Zornoza with a chipped pass who then scores a golazo into the upper 90.
In the game against Betis, midfielders Zornoza and Kaci were tasked with helping the build up play in what was a 4-2-3-1 formation that was not conducive for the midfielders to be close enough to connect and forwards Kosovare Asllani and Esther González were on a similar line too high up to be consistent options. At the start of the game Zornoza and Kaci sat behind Betis' midfield line of 4 in order to be an option that breaks lines, but the center backs had trouble finding them.
When this was not working, they decided that when the center backs had the ball, the outside back would push up higher and Kaci or Zornoza would take up the vacated space. In theory this would make it easier for them to get the ball and it would give them more numbers forward. This can be seen below.
Real Madrid's tendency to play on the left side is because of the quality of the players on that side, but I think it hurts Athenea. Sometimes when I watch this team I wonder why they wouldn't want to get her the ball more. There are still some areas of her game that need polishing, but she is Madrid's most creative player on the dribble and puts in a lot of crosses. It will be interesting to see how her role and how the team evolves under new manager Alberto Toril.
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