UCL 19/20: Real Madrid vs Manchester City: Beating the double False Nine system.

Pep Guardiola used a new system of a double false nine role for Manchester City of Kevin de Bruyne and Bernardo Silva as they beat the Spanish giants 2-1 in the first leg. A lot of work to do for Zidane in the tactical area so that he can outplay Manchester City at Etihad. However, it doesn’t look very easy for Los Blancos because City already has two away goals, and these goals seem very precious going into the second leg of the fixture.

​The Lineup:

Defence:-

In the first leg, Real Madrid opted for Ferland Mendy in the left-back position. However, in my opinion, they should use Marcelo in the return leg because Zidane consistently permits his full-backs to go forward. While Mendy being offensively weak to Marcelo, he should be dropped to the bench.

With Marcelo at the full-back position, Real Madrid scores a goal every 35 minutes but concede every 75 minutes. However on the contrary Madrid score every 52 minutes but go on an average of conceding a goal every 148 minutes with Mendy.

My judgment would be to play Marcelo and bench him in the second half to have the tactical balance.

With Ramos suspended, Nacho to be the man to replace the captain in defense. And the rest, to be the identical from the first leg.

Midfield:

In the first leg, Madrid played with a 4-man midfield. However, Toni Kroos was left out, and he is one of the most important players to play this game with given circumstances for the second leg. Toni controls the tempo of the team and will guarantee a good chance from the midfield. Might as well drop Isco to bring Kroos in.

According to the picture, the tactics almost worked out. With the inclusion of Marcelo, Real Madrid will have significant numbers going into the attack, and it will be very beneficial for the away team.

Vinicius cutting in and the full-back offering width will disbalance City’s 442 defensive shape. Especially now, when Laporte is out and Otamendi being slower, Vinicius can put the game to bed very quickly if he wanted to with his proper talent set. But it seems plausible that the Belgian devil, Eden Hazard could return by the time the second leg is contested and immediately be the first choice over the teen.

Isco, Valverde, and Caseimiro proved to be very crucial in the first leg while Modric sat at the back, which helped Carvajal to go on full offense freeing Modric some open space to show some artistry. However, it didn’t go as planned.

A 5-man midfield with Gareth Bale in the lineup will also work just as excellent because you can never write the Welshman off the book.

Attack;

Photo Credit: Football Made Simple.

Not much to say in this area since Zidane doesn’t give his supplements a lot of chances. If it were up to me, I think Jovic could step up in games like these since Karim has been missing sitters in both the Spanish and the European League. Jovic is like a post-prime Cristiano Ronaldo who can poach incredibly in the final 3rd.

In the picture, you see that the players didn’t press Ederson much, but instead, they pressed the defenders, this forced Ederson to attempt 17 long balls in the first leg, which is rarely seen done by Manchester City. Zidane can do much better if he could bench Benzema, since they get a far better ratio to score goals with Jovic or Mariano.

Real Madrid are not in a good position at the time being, but you can never write them off no matter how bad the situation, but the only difference back then and now is the man Cristiano Ronaldo himself who would bring his team back from the dead out of nowhere.

Despite all these blueprints, never write off Pep Guardiola, he bought a new system of double false nine and might bring even more roles to the modern football with all the talent in the world his team possesses.

This article is merely an opinion with regards to stats and has no validity on what happens in the real match.