Where Should Gareth Bale Fit into the Real Madrid Jigsaw?

Somewhere in the limitless world of ever-so-broad listicles that your Facebook feed undoubtedly peers into, a world in which there are rankings for Tesco sandwiches, there will almost certainly be a post along the lines of "28 Examples of When Things Became Too Complicated."

In such a piece, nestled in with a mention of the United Kingdom's relationship with Europe and images of Ross and Rachel, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a photo of Real Madrid's Galacticos, all of them pictured with hands on hips, Rafa Benitez in the background scratching his head with his notebook. 

Final-slide material, you reckon? Probably. 

For Real Madrid, it's become emblematic of the club's current identity that a four-piece forward line costing in excess of €300 million remains puzzling in its arrangement, a sense of clarity frustratingly absent.

In James Rodriguez, the club has a No. 10 playing out wide; in Gareth Bale, it has a natural wide man playing as a No. 10; in Cristiano Ronaldo, it has a player who's increasingly operating as a No. 9 starting on the wing. 

Among the quartet, only Karim Benzema owns a position that's not up for debate, the other three posing systematic questions for Benitez.

And none more so than Bale. 

Central Role

To date this season, Benitez has shown a commitment to deploying the Welshman in a central role—"built around Bale," Marca has called it—allowing him to function as a sort of roaming No. 10 at the heart of the attack.

In essence, it's meant to be the role he played at Tottenham Hotspur and the one he continues to play for Wales—a role once so wonderfully described by the Guardian's Barney Ronay as "a bespoke kind of forward-stormtrooper role, a position that has no traditional label but might best be described as Sprinting Happy Run-Shoot Man or Lone Attack Stampede Humiliation."

Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press

From Benitez and Madrid, such thinking towards Bale has become both constructive in one sense but problematic in another. On a personal level, the Welshman's development is being prioritised, and as a free spirit, as a very natural beast, he requires the freedom he's currently being afforded—he'll never be effective in a narrowly defined role full of rules and restrictions. Players of his character don't work that way. 

Yet, simultaneously, the desire to use Bale centrally—whether it's Rafa Benitez's desire or that of president Florentino Perez will continue to be questioned—has and will create systematic issues around him. Madrid, in their current incarnation, aren't perfectly set up to accommodate him in such a way, leading to the mixed results we've witnessed to date. 

Indeed, against Real Betis and Espanyol, the concept looked formidable; against Sevilla and Barcelona, the less said the better. 

Complications

For Madrid, the biggest issue in using Bale through the middle is that, as he pushes forward, the attack as a collective becomes severely condensed: Benzema, as the No. 9, is already ahead of him, Ronaldo drifts in from the left to add another body and Rodriguez (or Isco) is looking to do the same from the right. 

Consequently, the 4-2-3-1 system is susceptible to collapsing as it did against Barcelona, when the attacking quartet basically became a compressed line of four totally detached from the rest of the team. 

For a 4-2-3-1 shape to work for Madrid with Bale in his "stormtrooper" role—and here the term "work" means being able to function against heavyweights and lightweights alike—the Welshman ideally needs one of two things: Either a platform behind him or true, industrious wide men flanking him to open up the pitch.

And it's this that's sometimes forgotten when discussing his successes elsewhere with Tottenham and with Wales. 

At White Hart Lane in particular, Bale rarely faced clutter in front of him because he was playing as a roaming No. 10 in a formation that functioned as a 4-4-1-1. It meant he was presented with space to best showcase his athletic gifts as he worked off a No. 9, while his positional freedom also came with little risk given he was supported by two banks of four behind him. 

Essentially, the whole thing bordered on being a give-him-the-ball-and-get-out-of-the-way concept. 

But at Madrid, it couldn't be more different. In a top-heavy XI, space isn't abundant through the middle, and that same platform isn't in place behind him. 

Of course, the sum of the talent on hand will ensure such complications will be overcome quite regularly. But sporadic excellence won't be enough; intermittent cohesion will see Madrid fall short in the hunt for silverware. 

Alternatives

Though it's been forced by the absence of Benzema, one of the alternatives we've seen from Benitez already this season is a 4-3-3 in which Bale starts as a notional centre-forward but switches throughout the 90 minutes with Ronaldo on the left. 

For large stretches, this is the shape we saw against Sevilla before the international break, but though it gives Bale prominence in the middle in the way he craves, it's a formation that can easily become lopsided because the left flank lacks a permanent presence, meaning too much is asked of Marcelo at left-back. 

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Consequently, the system used by Benitez against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Wednesday looked both significantly stronger and more natural. 

With Ronaldo playing exclusively as a No. 9 in the sort of 4-3-3 illustrated above, Bale was left to his own devices on the left wing, and he provided both the assists for the Portuguese's two goals on the night by storming into the spaces available in front of him. 

But what happens when Benzema is fully fit again? When Rodriguez earns a recall?

What does Benitez do with Bale then?

If the manager and the club are intent on using him centrally, trusting that the cohesion issues of the front four will work themselves out, one option would be to deploy a completely different midfield pairing behind Bale. 

In Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, Los Blancos possess two very silky distributors, but neither man is ideally suited to sitting in the "two" of a 4-2-3-1.

Thus, removing the German or the Croatian for either Casemiro or Mateo Kovacic could create a better balance. What might be even more intriguing, though, would be using Casemiro and Kovacic together—the former to provide the power; the latter to provide the energy. 

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However, it's difficult to shake the sense that this is becoming all too complex. That there's an easier option out there. That there's a system that might better cater to each man's strengths. 

A basic 4-4-2, perhaps?

Across the last 12 months, we've repeatedly witnessed that Ronaldo is far more effective when playing off Benzema, while Bale continues to thrive when given space but struggles when denied it.

Therefore, a 4-4-2 could provide both men with the commodity they need, and it would alleviate this feeling that Real Madrid's XI is full of stars whose impact is being blunted by playing out of position. 

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Maybe the biggest questions, then, are whether Benitez has the authority to oversee such a shift and whether Bale and Ronaldo will concede the territory they've wanted to occupy until now?

It might be better for the collective if they do.