Ahead of Real Madrid’s UEFA Champions League tie with Manchester City, this week’s #360debate asks whether the Spanish side can rely upon their back-four to perform when it truly matters.
La Liga correspondent Andy West and Deputy Editor James Piercy debate the topic, with many believing Manchester City will be able to take advantage of a perceived vulnerability at the heart of the Madrid side.
This week’s debate asks: Can Real Madrid rely on their back four against Man City?
It is perfectly true that Real Madrid’s defence has looked alarmingly vulnerable at times this season, with the first half of Saturday’s game at Rayo Vallecano and the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final at Wolfsburg offering obvious recent examples.
But when their backs are against the wall and they have to deliver, we should expect Madrid’s back line to deliver stiff resistance to Sergio Aguero and Co.
That wasn’t the case earlier in the season, when Rafa Benitez’s inability to establish a solid structure left them regularly reliant upon goalkeeper Keylor Navas (whose ability to produce those heroics is another reason for Madrid optimism).
But Zinedine Zidane has finally succeeded in identifying and remedying his team’s physical weakness in the centre of midfield by making Casemiro an unquestioned member of his starting XI.
Man City's best chance to the final is against Real Madrid. Their defence is so vulnerable. KdB on top form and anything can happen.
— Liam Canning (@OffsideLiam) April 15, 2016
Going forward, Casemiro does not offer a great deal and his technical skills, especially when he is placed under pressure, are suspect. But he is a strong tackler, is athletic and determined, reads the game very well and has the necessary mental discipline to hold his position in front of the back four.
Those qualities have made him indispensable, and it is notable that their weekend lapse against Rayo came when Casemiro was suspended.
If he had been there, Rayo wouldn’t have found such an open route to goal during the first half. Statistics tell the story: with Casemiro starting, Madrid have kept four clean sheets in their last six games.
One exception was against Barcelona, who could only manage a header from Gerard Pique. The other was at Wolfsburg as post-Clasico complacency set in.
With so much at stake, such a mental aberration simply will not be repeated again on Tuesday, and another Los Blancos clean sheet would be no surprise.
For a team so historically and supposedly suspect in defence, it’s surprising to see Madrid have statistically the joint-best defence in the Champions League in terms of average goals conceded (0.5, same as Atletico) and with the most clean sheets (eight).
Goalkeeper Keylor Navas has also come within 115 minutes of breaking the Champions League record for longest period without conceding. This undoubtedly gives Los Blancos confidence ahead of tomorrow, but there are reasons why they remain vulnerable.
Starting with the strength of the teams they have met as, with the exception of two clean sheets against PSG in matches that were exercises in both trying not to lose, Shakhtar, Malmo and Wolfsburg have not exactly been free-scoring outfits.
Their only truly impressive defensive display was the 2-0 win in Rome.
In the 21 matches Zinedine Zidane has presided over, Los Blancos have kept eight clean sheets. What’s perhaps more galling is they’ve conceded meaningful goals (i.e non-consolation ones) at Real Betis, Granada, Levante, Las Palmas and Vallecano. There are the clean sheets at Barcelona and home to Villarreal and Wolfsburg, but they do present chances.
Opportunities taken by the likes of Deyverson, Youssef El Arabia and William Jose can be corrected but it’s a risky game to play at the Etihad.
Assuming Sergio Ramos, whose shoulder injury is being carefully managed, and Pepe, 33, start, you do fear for them against attackers with the pace, mobility and ingenuity of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva (see Andre Schurrle, Julian Draxler, Mohamed Salah and Antoine Griezmann as examples).
Ramos and Pepe may have got into the travel-weary heads of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar in the Nou Camp but that spite is only ever effective in the Clasico.
