Real Madrid are champions of Europe – not bad considering the team’s circumstances just five months ago when they looked more like corpses treading water through a lost season. In what at the time may have been a knee-jerk reaction, Florentino Perez sacked Rafa Benitez and threw club legend Zinedine Zidane into the fire.
Zidane came in as a raw manager. He inspired the players to churn out the club’s 11th Champions League title while making a downright euphoric near-comeback in La Liga.
But what Real Madrid have done under Zidane has been quite remarkable, and few are giving them credit for their success. Some have claimed that Madrid's path to the final was easy and that Atletico deserved it more, but they did ultimately slay their city rivals who tournament favorites Barcelona and Bayern Munich failed to hurdle past.
Zidane came in as a raw manager. He ends the season with the club’s 11th Champions League title, and having come close to a sensational comeback in La Liga – all without his team truly reaching their peak. Here’s a review of his evolution as head coach in first season in charge...
Man-management (A+)
Every piece of advice he gives you is like gold dust and it helps you improve on the pitch
You don’t have to call him a brilliant tactician, but Zidane made history when he helped Real Madrid lift ‘La Undecima’ – and if it wasn’t his tactics, it was his ability to inspire that carried the team to it.
Zidane’s best asset has been his ability to bring out the best in his players. Naturally, when you’re one of the best players to ever kick a football, you will reap respect – a sharp 180-turn from Rafa Benitez who the players reportedly mocked for never having played relevant football.
"Every piece of advice he gives you is like gold dust and it helps you improve on the pitch," said Luka Modric. "Zinedine was an idol, one of the players I admired as a child. I think every young player admired him because he was one of the best of his generation."
That ability to inspire, the feeling it instills and the success it brings – it’s real. Though it may not seem tangible, it’s the same asset that Real Madrid’s two previous Champions League-winning coaches, Vicente del Bosque and Carlo Ancelotti, had. Managing a conglomerate of stars takes a leader, and both Del Bosque and Ancelotti were able to channel their squad’s talent while unleashing it on their poor European counterparts. Zidane looks to be of that same mould.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing under Zidane, particularly from a tactical standpoint, but the results speaks for themselves - Champions of Europe, and one point off of the La Liga title race.
It started with the Frenchman's first game in charge – a manita (when a team scores five goals) over Deportivo La Coruna at the Bernabeu. From there, Real Madrid looked a little less mechanical with the ball. The players played with a sense of purpose, and they attack in ways that a team with their star power should. It hasn’t been smooth sailing under Zidane, particularly from a tactical standpoint, but the results speaks for themselves – champions of Europe, and one point off in the La Liga title race.
Zizou's tactics and results rated on the next page...
Tactics (B-)
They squeaked by with late winners away to Rayo, Granada, Las Palmas, and Real Sociedad, and then in the more high-profile matches, they turned it up when it truly mattered - a sign of a well-oiled and high-character team.
Evaluating Zidane’s season in the tactics department is interesting, because it’s so wonky and nonsensical at times but brilliant at others. There were stretches through Real Madrid’s La Liga comeback chase where the team looked strangled offensively, having trouble responding in away games against some of La Liga’s minnows who hounded them with a rabid high press.
Despite those hiccups, Real Madrid pushed through with individual brilliance and resilience. They squeaked by with late winners away to Rayo, Granada, Las Palmas and Real Sociedad, and then in the more high-profile matches, they turned it up when it truly mattered – a sign of a well-oiled and headstrong team.
Zidane may have lost his first big test against Atletico back in February, but he bounced back and leapt through his next big evaluation – a triumph in El Clasico. Barcelona were huge favorites, and many were sceptical that Zidane could come up with a tactical scheme that would stop Barcelona from scoring. But in hindsight, that match in Camp Nou proved to be the day he arrived as a manager.
Barcelona were trapped, trying to penetrate a narrow line where Real Madrid dared their opponents to swing the ball out wide. From there, Zidane’s men recovered quickly, retained possession and started slinging quick balls to the flanks for Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo to ignite counter-attacks.
It took time, but Zidane found ways to implement a starting line-up that provided balance. Casemiro was a ghost in the early stages of Zidane’s managerial career, but later he was transitioned in as a starter. He was the only pure defensive midfielder in the squad, and his emergence relegated both Isco and James – two players who would start for almost any other team on the planet – to the bench.
An underrated aspect of Zidane’s tactical evolvement as a manager is his ability to morph his scheme from game to game based on the situation. Against Manchester City, Real Madrid outshot their rivals by 19 over the course of two legs despite Zidane playing the second leg without Casemiro. Zidane slotted Toni Kroos in behind Luka Modric and Isco, and the German midfielder turned in his best performance of the season – snuffing out passing lanes with tremendous positioning while distributing the ball at an elite rate. Casmerio’s understudy, Isco, linked up beautifully with Marcelo on the left flank which gave Manuel Pellegrini’s men all kinds of problems in their search to retain possession. Real Madrid were playing routine through-balls to the overlapping wing-backs and City had no answer.
Results (A)
Zidane has achieved a lot given that he is completely new to top-flight management and hasn’t had a say in squad assembly... yet.
The Frenchman's team have gutted through laborious wins all season; it’s nothing new, and perhaps the way they won the Champions League final epitomised what their season was. But perhaps that’s what makes their campaign so impressive – it’s that ‘gold dust’ rubbing off on the players. Kroos and Casemiro had proper breakout seasons after arriving from Bayern Munich and Porto respectively, and Bale had his best season in a Real Madrid shirt.
Madrid squeaked by their opponents all season, and even when they looked stagnant and disrupted, they found a way. They have arguably the world’s best flanks, can score from set-pieces, have tremendous aerial ability in every area of the pitch, and boast so much individual mastery that they can punish you even when they look buried.
"There is no such thing as justice in football. Whoever wins deserves to win. There are no excuses," acknowledged Atletico's master-motivator Diego Simeone after the final in Milan.
Now, if Florentino Perez’s words are true, Zidane will have full autonomy on signings this summer – which should be fascinating. If Zidane can achieve these results despite the odds stacked against him, imagine what he can do if he has the keys to run and build the squad with his own ideas...
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