Carlo Ancelotti Needs to Decide How He Wants His Real Madrid Team to Play

In just three months, Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has gone from one end of the football spectrum to the other.

He introduced himself to Madrid fans at his presentation on June 26 by saying, via The Guardian:

"I want a team that controls the play, that has a nice idea of attacking football, that has good balance. I don't think it will be difficult to play offensive football with lots of possession."

On September 21, after Madrid had demolished Galatasaray 6-1, he appeared to have had a change of heart. Defending the way Madrid had defeated the Turks by punishing them on the counter-attack, he told a press conference, via AS:

"

We don’t need 30 passes to find a solution. You have to be ready to find it sooner... three passes will do. I can’t go against the qualities in my players, and if we find the solution in three passes instead of 30, that’s what we’ll do. I’m Italian and the counter is one option I like.

"

Seven games into the season, Madrid find themselves five points behind league leaders Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, on the back of a home defeat to the latter in their last game.

It may still be too early to talk about losing pace in the title race two months into the campaign, but this is a league in which the last two champions have both taken 100 points.

In other words, Madrid cannot afford many more slip-ups, and it is time for Ancelotti to decide what style of football he wants his team to play and stick with it.

Because, at the moment, his Madrid side look confused, unaware of how they want to play, and are suffering from it as a result.

They were well beaten on their own patch by Atletico and, three days earlier, only avoided an embarrassing point at Elche thanks to some questionable refereeing decisions.

So should Ancelotti stick to his initial promise of playing possession football, or renounce the lofty ambitions he arrived with and revert to what he and Madrid know best, and play on the counter?

It is important to point out that playing on the counter does not mean playing boring football. After all, the team Jose Mourinho lead to the 2011-12 league title scored a record-breaking 121 goals. Meanwhile, AS journalist and self-confessed Real Madrid fan Tomas Roncero has told the author of this column that "the Bernabeu doesn't want to see tiqui-taca, the fans will get bored, we want a team that is quick on the break."

It should also be remembered Madrid's best performance of the season so far came at Galatasaray, where they scored six goals but also had less possession than their opponents, the only time that has happened this season.

Ancelotti himself remarked after that game in Istanbul, in which Madrid were fortunate to be ahead at half-time (per Sky Sports): "We struggled, but after Isco's goal it was easier, we had more opportunities to counter-attack."

There are, therefore, many reasons for Madrid to base their approach around playing on the counter.  Cristiano Ronaldo is at his most lethal when running at a stretched defence, as is Gareth Bale, on whom Madrid splurged an estimated €100 million to bring to the club. The trouble is the ideal man to thread the play together, one of the best counter-attacking midfielders in the world, has left the club.

Mesut Ozil provided 61 assists over three years at Madrid under Mourinho and provided Ronaldo with 27 goals, more than any other player the Portuguese has played with.

His replacement, Isco, has been very impressive, but is not as quick on the break, nor as good at linking the play.

It is not known how much say Ancelotti had in the sale of Ozil, but Madrid president Florentino Perez has insisted he agreed to his departure, and the fact he took the German off 65 minutes into the game at Granada and then left him out against Athletic Bilbao suggests he was not his biggest fan.

Perhaps the sale was part of a plan to play a different way, but now that Ancelotti appears to have changed his mind about playing on the counter, it looks rather short-sighted.

Another obstacle to playing on the counter to devastating effect is the continued absence of Xabi Alonso, who will not be back until November at the earliest while he recovers from a broken metatarsal. The Spain international is great at breaking up the play with his physicality and is just as useful in starting the counter with his long, accurate passes.

Against Atletico, Ancelotti lined up with Sami Khedira alongside Asier Illarramendi in midfield, a nod to playing on the counter-attack. The pair had never started a match together, and the experiment failed. Los Blancos lacked a creative outlet with which to break down their opponents, a problem that was compounded by the fact Atletic themselves play on the counter, and effectively blocked Madrid's attempts to break when they surrendered the ball.

This was best demonstrated in the 42nd minute after Diego Costa's shot was blocked by Diego Lopez following a corner, and Angel Di Maria ran onto a short pass up the field from Khedira, but the attack was smothered by Juanfran and Gabi.

Modric does not have the physicality of Alonso, but dominated the midfield against Athletic Bilbao in both his offensive and attacking duties. Ancelotti effectively admitted he had made the wrong decision by replacing Illarramendi with Modric at half-time, leading to an improved performance from the hosts, even though it was not enough to inspire a comeback.

Although Khedira and Modric struggled against Elche, they are the best pairing Ancelotti has until Alonso returns. For now, Illarramendi does not have the passing range of Modric, meaning he is not yet fit to be Alonso’s heir.

Furthermore, having Modric on the pitch gives Madrid a better chance of unblocking rigid teams that refuse to give them the counter-attack, as the Croatian proved last season in the second leg of the Champions League last 16 tie at Manchester United.

Madrid should seek to play on the counter in order to get the best out of Bale and Ronaldo, but plan for alternatives on the odd occasion they meet a team that manages to cancel them out.

Above all, Ancelotti should make it clear what he wants from his players. As Sid Lowe of The Guardian has pointed out: “neither system nor style is yet clear."

This has been seconded by Alfredo Relano of AS: “He came with the reputation of a coach of an accommodating nature. But he is taking it too far. He needs to identify a plan and stick to it, because his doubts are proving a destructive force on his group of players.” 

Richard Martin is a sports journalist based in Madrid.

You can follow him on Twitter @rich9908