Zidane - Real Madrid's tactical mastermind

Posted Saturday, April 15, 2017 by Marca.com

With the second half about to start, Zinedine Zidane rushed down the Allianz Arena tunnel. He'd used every second of the interval, to the point where he was the last one out of the away dressing room. Real Madrid were 1-0 down, and fortunate to be so, with Bayern Munich missing a penalty not long before the break. The Bavarians were well on top.

But while Zidane might have missed the start of the second half, his half time work was easy to see as the whistle blew. Real Madrid had changed shape, with Gareth Bale moving into midfield to leave Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo as strike partners. It allowed the visitors to claim the centre of the pitch, where Xabi Alonso, Thiago Alcantara and Arturo Vidal had been so dominant up until that point. It allowed them to mount a comeback.

Of course, the game hinged on more than just Zidane's tactical switch, with the dismissal of Javi Martinez just after the hour mark the incident upon which the contest truly pivoted, but the dynamic had changed long before then. The match started flowing in Real Madrid's favour as soon as Zidane drew up his alterations on the blackboard at half time, with Cristiano Ronaldo netting the equaliser just two minutes into the second half.

It's no so long since Zidane's perceived lack of tactical nous was widely seen as a weakness. The Champions League triumph of his first season as a senior manager was denounced in some quarters as merely the result of inspiration. It was claimed that Zidane's appointment had galvanised a squad solely due to his legendary status at the club and that Real Madrid could only go so far under his control.

But with Zidane at the helm Real Madrid stand a strong chance of winning back to back Champions League titles, something last achieved by Arrigo Sacchi's legendary AC Milan side, with his team also on course to win La Liga for the first time since 2012. He could feasibly go down as the club's most successful manager in modern times, making a mockery of those who doubted him, certainly those who doubted him as a tactician.

But Wednesday's win in Bavaria wasn't the first time Zidane has underlined his capacity as a tactical thinker. There was the comprehensive 3-0 win over Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon earlier in the season, for which Zidane had picked an unfamiliar starting lineup. Pundits and fans alike attempted to second guess the Real boss' tactical blueprint, but once the match started it became clear that Zidane had got it right, with the 4-4-1-1 shape stopping Atleti's transition while giving Ronaldo the space to score a hat-trick.

That win proved to be a watershed in the way Zidane is thought of as a coach, with the former World Cup winner finally recognised as a legitimate footballing thinker. But if that win over Atletico announced made a point in Spain, the win at the Allianz Arena announced it to a continental audience.

Contrast the way in which Zidane controlled the match against Bayern Munich to the way Luis Enrique allowed Barcelona's game against Juventus on Tuesday night to get away from them. Unlike the Real boss, he failed to stem the flow of the match with his half time changes, once again demonstrating a lack of understanding in how to get the best from his players in certain circumstances.

Zidane will face another test of his tactical expertise in the return leg next week, with Bayern Munich more than capable of pulling off a result at the Santiago Bernabeu that would see them progress to the Champions League semi-finals at Real's expense. But nonetheless, Wednesday's win over the Bavarians, or rather the manner of it, was another triumph for someone whose managerial career is already starting to match that which he enjoyed as a player. Zidane is the real deal.