Can 'the Engineer' Construct A Successful Real Madrid Side?

Can Madrid match their Catalunyan counterparts in winning a historic Triplete this coming season? The man responsible for making this happen is Manuel Pellegrini.

Pellegrini faces a tough challenge of keeping his superstar's inflated egos in check. Despite this, every manager in the world must be envious of his position and endless resources. Yet signing the world’s best players means nothing, they need to be directed in a way that allows them to achieve success collectively as a squad.

This is the reason Florentino Perez hired 'The Engineer' as their manager.

Nicknamed ‘El Ingeniero’ (The Engineer), Manuel Pellegrini is in fact an engineer by trade, graduating in 1979 from the Universidad Catolica de Chile with a degree in Civil Engineering. But instead of applying his knowledge on matters of infrastructure, Pellegrini devoted his educated mind to building football teams.

Pellegrini began his managing career in Chile, directing Universidad de Chile (one of the most popular sides in the country), Palestino, O'Higgins, and Universidad Catolica (another of the country’s largest clubs).

He then left Chile for Ecuador and coached Ecuadorian club L.D.U. Quito, before taking over the Argentinean Primera Division side San Lorenzo, and then River Plate to Clausura championships (the premier tournament in the Argentinean League).

His success in Argentina caught the eye of Villarreal, and in 2004 Pellegrini took the managerial position at El Madrigal. Immediately leading the club to a Champions League berth with a third place Liga finish and as far as the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

In the next season, El Ingeniero would make a habit out of success as Villarreal reached the Champions League semi-finals and finished seventh in La Liga. The next two seasons saw the Yellow Submarine finish respectively fifth and then second in La Liga, the latter finish being an unprecedented mark for the club—which brings us to last season, in which Pellegrini led Villarreal as far as the Champions League quarter-finals along with a fifth place Liga finish.

Dealing with superstardom is not alien to Pellegrini, as at Villarreal he managed some of La Liga’s most talented players; Marcos Senna, Santi Cazorla, Giussepe Rossi, Diego Lopez, Joan Capdevilla, and Juan Roman Riquelme among  many others. Most famously, few Liga fans have forgotten how he controversially dropped Argentinean superemo Riquelme from the squad in order to take back control of his dressing room.

Despite the many names linked with the helm at the Bernabeu, Florentino Perez picked a quality candidate in Pellegrini. But can Pellegrini achieve success with Real Madrid where so many other coaches have cracked under pressure?

The style of football demanded at the Bernabeu is one that is essential to Real Madrid—entertaining, free-flowing, attacking football with crisp passing and dominant possession—a style not too dissimilar from Pep Guardiola’s men, or from the Spanish national team’s, or even Valencia’s play. It is no wonder then that Madrid brought in Spanish internationals over the summer, such as Valencia-boy Raul Albiol, and the Liverpool duo Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso.

Pellegrini prefers the classic 4-4-2 formation—a system very similar to that used by the Spanish national squad. In fact, in Real Madrid’s preseason matches thus far, one can see a vague parallel between the play of La Roja and Los Blancos. The wingers are given relative liberty to roam, the strikers come back to involve themselves in midfield play, the full-backs are aggressive coming forward, and the midfielders cycle out of the build-up to cover the gaps left at the back.

Similar to the philosophy promoted by Luis Aragones, Vicente del Bosque, and Pep Guardiola, El Ingeniero promotes a style of no more than three touches of the ball, better two, best one.

The objective remains to knock the ball around the pitch—sometimes swinging it from sideline to sideline—and probe the gaps left in the defence as it struggles to keep pace. Possession is valued and even in defending, the philosophy is to attack—pursue the opposing offence and apply pressure to regain possession.

With some of the best players in the world and Pellegrini to lead them, Real Madrid have the chance to redeem themselves and their fans by taking back their Liga crown. With a squad teeming with talent, the Copa del Rey is also a goal that can no longer be overlooked.

But the ultimate prize for Madridistas is the 10th Champions League trophy that has been far too elusive for so many years. With this season's Champions League final to be held in the Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid are intent upon being in that match. If anyone can engineer such a perfect season, one would be hard pressed to find anyone better than the Engineer himself.