La Liga 2019/20: Osasuna vs Real Madrid – tactical analysis

It was Zinédine Zidane’s 88^th Real Madrid victory in the La Liga. Real Madrid had a disappointing midweek game in the Copa del Rey as they were knocked out by Real Sociedad. In this fixture, they travelled to El Sadar and challenged Osasuna.

Osasuna were 11^th of the table before this game. In their last four league games, they only had one loss. They had been knocked out by Sociedad at the round of 16, so they had more time to prepare for this game.

In this tactical analysis, we will show you how Madrid beat Osasuna. It is an analysis that focuses on tactics.

Lineups

Jagoba Arrasate played a strong team against Madrid in a 4-3-1-2 formation. Chimy Ávila, their top scorer suffered from a cruciate ligament rupture, hence why José Arnáiz partnered with Rubén García. Marc Cardona was left on the bench. For the centre-backs, Aridane Hernández was suspended so Unai García took his position.

Madrid played in a 4-3-3 with most of the players that werent featured in the cup game. Dani Carvajal, Raphaël Varane, and Ferland Mendy returned to the defence. The midfield trio was formed by Casemiro, Luka Modrić and Federico Valverde. Both Gareth Bale and Isco started.

The build-up of Madrid vs Osasuna’s press

Zidane’s team tried to play out from the back, but their build-up was disrupted by Osasuna’s press. For Madrid themselves, as we can see in the below passing map, they tried to open their shape.

Mendy and Carvajal were the widest players on both flanks. The connections between Sergio Ramos, Varane, and Casemiro were weak in terms of their positionings and pass exchanged.

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