Match date: 4 January 2015

La Liga is back after the winter break. Real Madrid spent the break in Dubai and played a friendly against AC Milan, which Los Blancos lost 4-2, two days before the new year. They did, however, come into the second half of La Liga on a 22 match winning streak (official matches only).

Valencia have had a successful year so far, coming into the match at 31 points, just outside of the Champions League spots. Nuno has switched formations a fair amount this season, mostly using a 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3, but for this match, he opted for a 3-4-1-2.

Real Madrid and Ancelotti continued with a 4-3-3 with Ronaldo, Benzema, and Bale up top. Isco and James played in front of Toni Kroos, who was the pivote.

Valencia Press Well

Valencia started the match the much better of the two sides. They kept possession of the ball very well in the opening stages and it was just about the best bit of play that either side had during the match. One of the best parts of Valencia’s play throughout the match was their intense pressing of Real Madrid’s back four and the midfield when the ball was played into Isco, James, and Kroos. They were quick to hassle the ball carrier and when Real Madrid managed to move the ball relatively freely between the centre backs, Valencia pressed with the forwards and cut off the passing angles to Kroos, Isco, and James.

What Valencia’s pressing did was force the likes of Pepe, Ramos, and Kroos, when he did have time to receive, to try to pick out Ronaldo and Bale with long balls in the wide areas. Playing three at the back against a 4-3-3 is somewhat risky because of the 1v1 opportunities that the opposition has against the centre backs, however, with Valencia’s pressing, especially with the wing backs pushed to the full backs, it nullified this and made the Real Madrid’s game about trying to pick out these long passes. Even with a long ball, the opposition is still playing into a 1v1 and with Ronaldo and Bale in the wide areas, Real Madrid would still consider themselves very capable of taking advantage of the 1v1s despite not getting the ball to feet. However, this wasn’t the case and time and again Real Madrid’s long passes were cut out or over hit and Ronaldo and Bale struggled to get involved.

Valencia’s pressing continued well when the ball was played into midfield and Kroos, Isco, and James were unable to get the ball forward to Ronaldo, Bale, and Benzema on a consistent basis. James failed to get into the match with any purpose and so much of Real Madrid’s play in the middle third went through Isco and Kroos, but Valencia were able to get close to them when they received the ball and forced them to play square and back passes rather than get the ball forward to the front three, all of whom failed to have an impact on the match and had to drop deeper and deeper toward the half way line in order to get the ball to feet.

Tempo-less Match, Real Madrid Fail to Exploit Wide Areas

Aside from the opening quarter hour or so when Valencia were dominating all aspects of the match, despite a Ronaldo goal from a penalty, the match was broken up by the number of fouls and other stoppages, including things like a yellow card for Gaya upon his introduction to apparently entering the match without permission.

Real Madrid had majority of possession, about 61%, but it was tedious. This was down to many of the reasons stated above dealing with Valencia’s pressing, but also because of the number of fouls committed by both teams. It led to a game that had its tempo consistently broken up.

Toni Kroos, who has most of the responsibility to dictate the match for Real Madrid, struggled to push his side forward, again due to Valencia’s pressing. Without having sustained possession, Marcelo and Carvajal were unable to work their way up the pitch and so Real Madrid failed to exploit the wide areas of the pitch. With Piatti, then Gaya, and Barragan as wing backs, it meant that Real Madrid could have created 2v1 situations against Valencia’s wide players, but without sustained possession going forward, Marcelo and Carvajal were unable to risk opportunities to overlap their wingers and were pinned back, fearing that Valencia’s pressing would allow them to win the ball back high up the pitch and launch a counter attack in the areas that the full backs would have vacated by going forward.

Otamendi and the Back Line

The Valencia centre back had an excellent match and his winning header, which came on the back of a last ditch tackle on Bale, was just rewards for his performance. He put in a commanding performance, completing all of this tackles, winning most of his headers, and making crucial blocks. He was able to keep Benzema from having any influence on the match and led his back line very well. Otamendi, Mustafi, and Orban were all able to keep their marks under control. Ronaldo and Bale both had very anonymous matches and the Valencia back three completed 14 of their 16 attempted tackles.

Conclusion

An excellent match for Valencia who now find themselves in the top four of La Liga and in a Champions League spot. The quality of their performance was largely down to their pressing which forced Real Madrid into an incredibly poor performance that lacked any ebb and flow. Valencia had the best move of the match which led to a missed opportunity by Barragan in the 68th minute, who had equalised earlier in the match.

Real Madrid looked tired and this contributed to their inability to bypass Valencia’s press, but they seemed to lack ideas going forward when they failed to get the ball into the feet of Ronaldo and Bale.

Real Madrid host Espanyol in their next fixture, while Valencia play Celta de Vigo.