During the early days of his career as a youngster at Southampton, Gareth Bale generally played at left-back. He then developed his reputation with Tottenham operating further upfield as a left wing, later on also appearing on the right flank and occasionally as a central attacking midfielder.
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Something he has hardly ever done, however, is play as an out and out centre forward. Quite why, then, Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti thinks it is a good idea to play the Welshman in that position remains something of a mystery.
Especially for a Champions League semi-final. Even more especially away from home against Juventus, one of the best defensive teams in the world. And extra especially when he was only just returning from injury and lacking rhythm.
True, Bale played badly against the Italian champions on Tuesday night, largely deserving the criticism his performance (or non-performance) attracted.
Gareth Bale had the fewest touches of any starting Real Madrid player last night #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/ePB8AqQmOD
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) May 6, 2015
Aside from a neat piece of play in the fifth minute when he robbed Andrea Pirlo in midfield and surged towards goal before forcing Bonucci into a desperate foul, and a dangerous cross in the second half, Bale did absolutely nothing to trouble the Juventus defence all night.
For a world-record signing who appears to have been given protected species status by Madrid president Florentino Perez, that is quite simply not good enough. Nowhere near good enough. But the greater fault, surely, lies with Ancelotti for placing Bale in an unfamiliar position for such an important game against such an outstanding opposition defence.
Bale really is not suited to playing as a centre forward. The strengths of his game are his pace and power, giving him an ability to penetrate defences either by charging straight through the middle or by terrorising full-backs down the flanks.
A quick review of Bale’s career highlight reel confirms this. You probably don’t even need to see the pictures, in fact, to conjure up images of Bale, running at pace from the halfway line and bursting onto his left foot to blast powerful missiles towards goals.
Take the greatest moment of his Real Madrid to date, for example: his Copa del Rey final winning goal against Barcelona last season. Receiving the ball near the halfway line, he curved his run off the left touchline and back onto the pitch, skinning Marc Bartra in the process, before cutting into the penalty area to fire home an angled strike.
It was a sensational goal, the type of goal that very few players in the world are capable of scoring, and exactly the kind of moment why Real Madrid were prepared to fork out such a high price to sign him.
But none of those things can happen when you’re playing at centre forward, where space is congested, passes have to be played quickly and you have to spend much of the time with your back to goal.
Bale thrives when he has space to run into, allowing him to gather a head of steam and commit defenders into either making a challenge or backing away towards goal. He is a winger, or an attacking central midfielder if he must play down the middle. He is not a centre forward and he never has been.
Ancelotti made a huge error in playing him there for such a significant game. Of course, it wasn’t the only odd positional decision made by the Madrid boss, who was also guilty of persisting with his Sergio Ramos in midfield experiment for one game too long.
In the same way that Bale’s lack of close control and associative play prevents him from operating effectively as a centre forward, Ramos’s restricted range of passing means he is not a central midfielder.
In attempting to cope with injuries and the demands of his president, Ancelotti has been guilty of shoving round pegs into square holes. They do not fit, and it is a lesson he must learn – quickly.
Fortunately, Karim Benzema is soon due back from injury, meaning Bale will return to the right wing, giving him an opportunity to remind Ancelotti of his best position. He must take it.
