Football | Tactics | The business behind the game. Writing what others overlook. Co-Founder @BetXtra_ | Co-Founder UmbrellaInc | Advisor @RealDealPodz
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The Tchouaméni - Camavinga battle for a place alongside Arda in El Clásico should be about helping Madrid take the game to Barcelona. PSG gave Mourinho a great reference point.
Flick brings players closer to combine, exchange positions & attract opponents before finding Lamine with less traffic. Follow every movement individually and you leave another player free. Their establishment follows throughout this season and relationship is quite a similar approach of Alonso’s Leverkusen.
PSG challenged that with collective pressure & quick attacks after recovering possession. Neves won the ball for Doué’s opener, Vitinha picked up the loose ball outside the box & Fabián arrived to finish Hakimi’s delivery. Their midfield could recover possession, support the attack & finish it. Midfield is the heart of a team. That’s what Madrid should be building around Arda, Jude & whoever starts beside them. Arda drawing pressure and progressing, Jude receiving beyond it, combining & arriving in the box.
Tchouaméni holding underneath gives both freedom to move. Camavinga shares more of the work of receiving under pressure & carrying through it, both serve a purpose but a flawed one. Camavinga’s profile is more adaptable if you’re trying to emulate PSG’s approach. Tchouaméni if you’re seeking for lower positioning and blocking the channels.
The similarity between them is ability to win duels. Which is very important against a Flick-led team.
Mourinho will have a headache with the picking because of the presented flaws both players have.
Great result for Real Madrid to build confidence from. Arda & Camavinga the standouts, with their performances giving Mourinho something worth developing. We’re seeing an evolution.
Camavinga was brilliant in that floating pivot role. Timed his drops to receive, recognised when to move forward & didn’t force actions. Madrid had a passing option underneath without him becoming disconnected from the players ahead. Completed 65/71 passes & won 14 duels, while dealing really well with Leipzig’s attempts to enter through the middle. These sort of movements matter for the players around him. Someone offering a way back allows Arda, Bernardo & Jude to combine without every forward pass becoming an action they have to finish immediately. Madrid can keep the ball, move the opposition & choose when to accelerate. Bernardo Siva played a huge role in that.
Arda Güler just continues being brilliant. Connected the right side, created chances & still arrived to threaten the goal: 73 touches, 54/58 passes & 2 chances created in 78 minutes. His shot produced Bernardo’s opener before he scored the second himself.
Some collective problems remain, especially how passively Madrid started. A high line needs pressure on the player supplying the pass; Leipzig were repeatedly allowed to look up & attack behind it. Courtois still had to make 5 saves. Feels that LHS with Vinícius gets trapped against the ball too easy when team is hyper aggressive.
There’s plenty to build on with these profiles. Give them continuity, bring the lines closer & coordinate the pressure. Their quality deserves to show across the whole team. Mourinho will probably have a more balanced XI for El Clásico.
Convincing result. Good performance to build from that Sevilla game and leaving scars of Roma match behind.
3 more games banned in La Liga and he doesn’t even get the full 90 minutes against Leipzig while 2-0 up.
I’m confused.
Vinícius hasn’t been bad individually. He’s trying to combine with teammates, but the actions fall flat because there’s no cohesion or shared understanding of the next movement.
He’s trying in the press too, but still becomes a weak link because the actions aren’t coordinated.
That comes back to coaching or to use better words: not having it.
Vinícius hasn’t been bad individually. He’s trying to combine with teammates, but the actions fall flat because there’s no cohesion or shared understanding of the next movement.
He’s trying in the press too, but still becomes a weak link because the actions aren’t coordinated.
That comes back to coaching or to use better words: not having it.
Real Madrid’s subpar tactical approach is taking away from what these players could offer as a cohesive team.
Bernardo, Arda, Jude, Camavinga, Rüdiger, Huijsen & Valverde have all had good moments. But a high line with no pressure on Leipzig’s build-up leaves Madrid relying on Courtois. Could’ve been 3–0 down. Majority OOP problems come with both Mbappé & Vinícius game exposed.
6 shots; 2 outside the box, one near the edge. Not enough with 59% off the ball and that high of a line. 1.28 xG speaks of good quality in those shots but volume still takes away from that.
15 minutes and Real Madrid IL & OOP structure starts to show. More proactive, foot on the gas. Seemingly they need that break to get on rhythm.
One clear pattern with this Madrid is how passively they start games. Little movement w/ or w/o the ball.
The urgency comes when the game picks up around them. They react to the tempo rather than set it themselves. The’ve started this game exactly same way. #RealMadridLeipzig #UCL
Real Madrid start with a 2+2 midfield & a very high line, but no pressure to disrupt Leipzig’s build-up and progression.
Leipzig have got in behind three times already. Two bad touches & an offside have saved Madrid.
One clear pattern with this Madrid is how passively they start games. Little movement w/ or w/o the ball.
The urgency comes when the game picks up around them. They react to the tempo rather than set it themselves. The’ve started this game exactly same way. #RealMadridLeipzig #UCL
Camavinga, Bernardo, Arda, Jude, Valverde & Carreras give Madrid the ingredients for free-flowing football. That needs control of possession & the team high enough to keep the game in the opposition’s half.
Part of me is really happy to see Mourinho recognising the problems & trying to find solutions- understanding the worth of pitch dominance w/ the ball.
Sevilla game gave us a good glimpse of what Real Madrid can be, but that has to become a consistent trajectory.
Assessing coaches is not easy because t a lot of their work is done behind the scenes.
But, watching Fabregas-led Como had me extremely intrigued and there is a clear coaching fit with him.
3 days after publishing, Nico Paz and & Jacobo Ramón (Real Madrid products) have both scored for Como as they obliterate Manchester United. Same way and mannerisms to them against Leipzig whom Madrid play tonight.
Real Madrid’s squad is imbalanced, but I think there’s much more to get from the technical quality already here. Getting those players platformed & make the game easier is what interests me about Cesc Fàbregas.
He’s 39, still early in his coaching career. Two completed Serie A seasons: 10th in 2024/25, 4th in 2025/26 & Como’s first-ever European qualification. Then a 4–1 win over Leipzig on their Champions League debut.
The individual development alongside that catches my attention. The reported fees were €2.5m for Jacobo Ramón & €13m for Perrone. Now valued at €30m & €35m respectively. Nico Paz had risen from €10m at his Como debut to €80m in that same update.
Da Cunha is a particularly good example of the coaching. Valued at €400K before & now at €20M. He was already at Como before Cesc became coach, but moving him from the wing into midfield brought out a different player. Now their captain & a France international. Seeing qualities that weren’t being fully used, then finding the role for them. That development had Madrid fans wanting him at the club as a DLP solution.
Nico & Perrone made their senior Argentina debuts while playing for Como, Diao his for Senegal. Nico finished 2025/26 with 12 league goals & 7 assists; Jacobo started 32 league games. The team’s rise has come with players taking significant steps themselves.
And Madrid already know part of that work. Cesc was involved in the talks for Nico & personally called Jacobo to explain why he fitted Como. There’s an eye for talent, an idea of how to use it & the trust to let it develop.
His football is proactive: build through midfield, draw pressure & attack quickly when space opens. Players combining around the ball, runners giving them options & a press designed to keep the opposition under scrunity. That’s a direction I can see making sense for him at Real Madrid.
Como have backed his ideas with investment & responsibility. He’s turning that backing into results while giving players the roles & minutes to improve.
Cesc would be high on my list. Madrid have already seen some of their own talent become better under him and if you’re open to pay €15M for José Mourinho- you should also for a SPANISH coach with extraordinary skill to overperform. Huge footballing baggage with.
