Las Palmas travelled to the Bernabeu to face a Madrid side looking to maintain their lead at the top of the table. Quique Setien’s side are one of the most talked about in La Liga, with their interesting positional game, along with exciting individual players such as January arrivals Alen Halilovic and former Real Madrid prospect Jese.

Real create despite disconnected shape

The structural issues of Madrid under Zidane are fairly well documented. The characteristics of midfielders who like to drop deep, outside the opponents block in order to receive the ball, the most notable of which is Toni Kroos, combined with forwards who are mainly focused on getting into goal-scoring positions and playing on the last line of defence, can predictably create disconnected structures in possession, with poor occupation of important spaces. Of course, these aspects are also massively, if not mostly dependant on coaching, but just through the personnel and their characteristics one can see how sub-optimal structures might arise.

These structures were present in this match against Las Palmas – the midfielders – Kroos and Kovacic, playing outside of the opponent’s block, and the focus on the last line from Ronaldo, Morata and Bale, with Isco as the only ‘linking’ element. Las Palmas took an aggressive approach to defending, attempting to utilise an offside trap against the attack of Real Madrid. Some would argue that this approach is a naïve one, particularly given the strengths & characteristics of the opponent, as previously mentioned. The strategy was executed with varying success. On average, Madrid are caught offside 3.5 times per game. Against Las Palmas, they were caught offside 8 times (per WhoScored). However in the early stages of the game, Real Madrid were able to capitalise twice on the high defensive line used by Las Palmas. In the 7^th minute Isco made a penetrating run and was picked out by Kovacic, scoring an early goal for Madrid. Morata also had a goal ruled out wrongly for offside a few minutes later. Madrid continued to try and use long passes into depth to beat Las Palmas’ defence throughout the match – again with varying success.

Las Palmas in attack

The aspect which Las Palmas are most known for is their play when in possession. Against Real Madrid they demonstrated why this is, with some impressive sequences on the ball. They were mostly successful in playing out from the goalkeeper, who, due to Madrid’s poorly supported first line press, was able to progress the ball through longer passes to the full-backs and midfielders.

Las Palmas showed some good individual and collective pressing-resistance, creating structures which allowed them to support the ball carrier effectively in retaining possession, as well as open up spaces for longer passes behind Madrid’s midfield. Individually, players such as Mauricio Lemos and Roque Mesa were composed under pressure, able to carry the ball well and then find the correct pass to remove the ball from pressured zones. Their structure meant that they could occupy key spaces in attack – Boateng in the #10 space, Viera, Tana and sometimes Jese in the halfspaces. This allowed them to create good connections, both centrally and in wide areas.

One problem which Madrid faced when Las Palmas were in possession was to do with the lopsidedness of the formation. They played what was nominally a 4-3-3, with Kroos, Isco and Kovacic as centre midfielders, with Ronaldo, Morata and Bale as forwards. However at times their shape when defending was somewhere between a 4-3-3 and a lopsided 4-4-2, as Ronaldo and Morata (who rotated in and out of the left wing position) both stayed in the forward line, leaving Bale, Isco, Kroos and Kovacic as the midfield line, in which Kovacic would need to shift over to cover the left side vacated by Ronaldo/Morata. However he was not always able to do this fast enough, or he was trying to gain access to the ball in midfield, leaving open space in front of Marcelo for Las Palmas to attack. This is partially what contributed to Las Palmas’ first goal, when Kovacic had to come into the centre to pressure Boateng who picked up the ball in the #10 space, meaning Las Palmas could switch the ball over to the other side and attempt to exploit the temporarily vulnerable side of Madrid’s defence.

It was not only through positional play which Las Palmas could attack Real Madrid; they also showed some strength in transition & counter attacking. The speed and dribbling skill of their attackers, particularly Jese, were important to their counter attacks, but just as important was Roque Mesa, who with his crucial interceptions and aforementioned press resistance to begin attacks, was key to this aspect of their game. Another reason that Las Palmas were able to create threatening situations in transition was due to Real Madrid’s attacking structure. As already touched on in this piece, Madrid’s structure is often disconnected, which creates problems in terms of having strong ball circulation and creating quality chances. Such structures also create problems in defensive transition, as players are not in suitable positions to counterpress a potential ball-loss. This was a problem for Madrid in this game – with their focus on the last line, their attackers are not able to counterpress a loss of possession in midfield, which means that the defenders/defensive midfielders have to step out and leave large amounts of space behind them in order to pressure the ball and attempt to halt the counter attack.

Bale’s dismissal

After the sending off of Gareth Bale, Madrid were forced to adjust their formation to a 4-4-1 shape, with Isco taking up the right-midfield position, Morata on the left, Kroos and Kovacic in central midfield and Ronaldo as a lone striker.

Given the man-advantage that they now held, Las Palmas were able to dominate the ball for long sequences of the game. The 4-4-1 shape of Madrid meant that they were unable to create access to the ball without leaving large open spaces in their structure. As a result, Las Palmas were able to demonstrate great control over the central spaces in particular, creating good structures which allowed them to quickly move the ball into the open spaces in Madrid’s shape, due to their impressive occupation of those spaces. Madrid’s problems against the ball became even worse when Las Palmas went ahead, as the desperation to chase the ball increased – wanting to level the score.

Having 10 men also, predictably, affected Real Madrid’s ability to retain possession and build play cleanly. They were strongly outnumbered in midfield, which meant they relied even more on long passes, wing play and individual skill to create opportunities.

In the 70^th minute, James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema were introduced, in place of Kovacic and Morata. A few minutes earlier, Vazquez had replaced Isco. Madrid were now in an incredibly unorthodox 4-3-2 formation, with Kroos as the only true central midfielder in the team, Vazquez on the right, and Rodriguez as a #10. By this point Madrid were pressing the ball extremely aggressively leaving Kroos with huge amounts of space to cover in midfield. Late in the game Halilovic in particular showed some great individual pressing-resistance to escape Madrid’s pressing, as well as making himself available in the space around Kroos.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Real Madrid were able to equalise late on through two Cristiano Ronaldo goals – a penalty, and a header from a corner. However, Las Palmas can be proud of the performance they gave, especially given the gap in individual skill between the teams. Setien’s side showed on the Bernabeu stage why they are one of La Liga’s most admired teams. As for Real Madrid – this result allowed Barcelona to go to the top of the table, however Madrid are still in control of the title race at this point, due to their game-in-hand.