Why Sergio Ramos in Midfield Makes Perfect Sense for Real Madrid vs. Sevilla

Sergio Ramos will have a key role to play for Real Madrid in their quest to keep up the pressure on league leaders Barcelona by winning away to in-form Sevilla on Saturday.

Per Soccerway, Madrid’s hosts are undefeated at the Sanchez Pizjuan in competitive action since mid-March of last year. They have held Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia to draws on home soil already this season and recorded a 2-1 victory in last year’s equivalent fixture against Real.

And if Carlo Ancelotti wants to upset the form book, he would do well to consider placing Ramos in midfield against the club at which the defender began his career.

Ramos drew plaudits for his performance in that role in the second leg of Madrid’s Champions League quarter-final success over local rivals Atletico Madrid. He did a solid job of breaking up play in the centre of the park and moved the ball forward swiftly and accurately when won.

“He sacrificed himself for the team,” Ancelotti said afterward, as per Dermot Corrigan of ESPN FC. “I can have an idea, but the player needs to be convinced to help the team. He did it very well.”

And Ramos in midfield could again be a formula for success this weekend.

Marca included him alongside Toni Kroos in their predicted starting XI for Saturday’s match. They noted that Ancelotti has told his coaching staff that “the best will play” during the final, decisive weeks of the season and that Ramos, Pepe and Raphael Varane are all firmly included in that category.

With Luka Modric out injured, he is said to feel that Ramos offers a more secure option in midfield than either Asier Illarramendi or Lucas Silva.

Ancelotti refused to be drawn on this subject during his pre-match press conference on Friday. “It’s an option,” he said, as per Carlos Forjanes of AS. “He played well there [against Atletico] but we have other options, like Isco.”

It is, however, a move that would make sense for Madrid. Ramos is perhaps the only player in the current squad capable of combating the two distinct styles of approach play that Sevilla have utilised in recent times.

Unai Emery moved Vicente Iborra forward in the attacking midfield role for the first leg of the club’s Europa League round-of-16 tie against Villarreal. Standing at 6’3”, he towered over the opposition midfielders and provided a good initial focal point for Sevilla’s attacks.

The experiment worked so well that Emery persisted with it for both the second leg of that encounter and subsequent league fixtures.

The aerial threat Iborra provides is illustrated by the following video, courtesy of Sevilla’s official YouTube channel, of his performance in this role in the win away to Levante in early April.

Iborra did, however, meet his match in the physically strong Javi Garcia in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final against Zenit Saint-Petersburg. He was ineffective for much of the first half and was withdrawn at the interval.

Ramos would be capable of doing a similar smothering job on him if Emery elects to field Iborra in an advanced role on Saturday. Per WhoScored.com, the 6-foot defender leads Madrid in aerial duels won so far this season and would relish a physical battle of that nature.

Denis Doyle/Getty Images

The other option available to Emery is to field Denis Suarez as part of his attacking-midfield line of three. In Madrid’s last two league matches, both Celta Vigo’s Fabian Orellana and Almeria’s Thomas Partey were able to find space to receive the ball in the gap between their defence and midfield.

And that is exactly the area in which Suarez likes to operate.

The Barcelona loanee transformed the first leg of the Zenit tie. Sevilla dominated possession during the first half but struggled to penetrate the away defence. Iborra was kept in check and the Russian side took a one-goal lead into the break.

Suarez was introduced as one of two half-time substitutions and immediately changed the course of the match with his neat link play and intelligent movement between the lines.

With Aleix Vidal stretching play out wide, Suarez, Ever Banega and Jose Antonio Reyes combined in central areas to torment the Zenit back line. Carlos Bacca equalised with just over a quarter of an hour left to play, before Suarez scored the late winner himself with a crisp volley from the edge of the area.

If Suarez starts on Saturday, then it is imperative that Madrid do a better job of constricting space between the lines than they did against Celta and Almeria. That is not really a natural role for either Illarramendi or Kroos. Ramos, however, is in possession of the necessary physicality and communication skills to pull it off.

Varane eventually started to take things into his own hands against Almeria, stepping forward to pressure the ball in areas in which the midfield should really have been the ones contesting it. With him in behind and Ramos screening in front, Madrid would surely be able to cover off these spaces more effectively.

Ramos is clearly at his best in defence—“He might be the most complete defender I’ve seen,” Ancelotti said on Friday—but the same attributes that make him so effective in the back line may be best employed in midfield this weekend.

Back on familiar territory, he could be the difference between success and failure for Madrid at the Sanchez Pizjuan on Saturday.