Player Focus: Can Ancelotti Maintain Midfield Balance With Kroos' Arrival?

Last January, after a routine 2-0 home win over Granada sent Real Madrid top of La Liga while keeping a club record seventh consecutive clean sheet, coach Carlo Ancelotti was beaming.

“The most important thing is the balance we have at the moment,” Ancelotti said. “That is the key. I have said it too many times, now the team defends really well and attacks really well.”

The Italian coach did talk a lot about balance (‘equilibrio in Spanish) throughout the 2013/14 campaign, especially after games such as the 7-3 win over Sevilla in October, and 2-2 draw at Osasuna before Christmas. Once it was eventually put in place this 'equilibrio' saw Madrid go 31 games without defeat in all competitions, and of course end the season holding aloft the long awaited 'Decima' European Cup trophy. 

Central to such success was a 4-3-3 formation with Luka Modric and Ángel Di María flanking the deep-lying Xabi Alonso in midfield. This meant that Madrid’s stellar front three – Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale – were not over-tasked with defensive work.

While much of the debate ahead of the 2013/14 season among Blancos fans and pundits has been around new galactico James Rodriguez taking Di María’s role in the team, a perhaps more important issue over the long term is whether fellow summer arrival Toni Kroos is really the long term replacement for Alonso as that key ‘pivot’ in midfield.

The initial report was positive. While Ronaldo scored the goals, and Bale impressed on home turf in Cardiff, Kroos was for many in Spain the outstanding player during last week's 2-0 European Supercup win against Sevilla. The former Bayern Munich man looked perfectly at ease directing traffic from deep in midfield, having the most touches of the ball (100), and also having the highest pass success (96%), of all 28 players involved. In his first game in a Madrid shirt, 14 long balls showed an Alonso-style tendency to quickly launch Ronaldo and Bale racing away on the break.

On the defensive side the statistics were less exciting. Kroos made 4 tackles (second most of all Madrid players), but made zero interceptions, blocked zero shots and made zero clearances. This was partly due to his team dominating possession and Sevilla showing little in attack. But it was noticeable the Sevilla player who looked most likely to create something was Denis Suárez – the Madrid number eight's direct opponent on the pitch.

Suarez had space as Kroos roamed around the pitch, looking to constantly influence the play. The German committed three fouls over the 90 minutes - the most obvious of which was when he was booked for a late trip on Grzegorz Krychowiak after getting caught too far up the pitch as Sevilla countered from a set-piece. By contrast Alonso often stays spends most of the game inside or close to the centre-circle, ensuring he is on hand to cover across the centre of the pitch when Madrid’s attacks break down.

This double-role in the team comes through in Alonso’s stats. In La Liga last term he averaged 65.6 passes at 88% success rate. In the Champions League those figures were 56.4 at 90.2%. Defensively he made 2.4 tackles and 1.5 interceptions per game in Spain, and 2.6 and 2.1 respectively in Europe. And like Kroos in Cardiff Alonso knows when to take one for the team. He made just 1.7 fouls per game domestically and just 1 foul per game in Europe, but many of these were ‘professional’ fouls to take out opponents in dangerous positions, or stop breaks. He got 5 yellow cards in 23 games in La Liga in 2013/14, after picking up a tremendous 21 [!] bookings in 61 games in all competitions during the previous campaign.

Most notoriously Alonso was suspended for the Champions League final, after diving in on Bastian Schweinsteiger with Madrid already all-but qualified in the second leg against Kroos’ Bayern. That was after an imperious performance in the first game at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu when Alonso was dominant in deep midfield - making 5 tackles (the most of any player), 3 interceptions (second highest) and 4 clearances. On the Bayern side Kroos made 3 tackles, 0 interceptions and 1 clearance as his side dominated possession but were regularly opened up on the break.

Admittedly Kroos was then playing a more advanced midfield position, with Pep Guardiola having instead viewed full-back Philipp Lahm as a better bet for conversion into a ‘holder’. Germany coach Jogi Low was also not over-keen to play Kroos deep at the recent World Cup. This was possibly as last season at Bayern his passing stats were much better than his tackling figures. He averaged 75.5 passes at 91.9% success rate in the Bundesliga, and did even better in the Champions League – 95.3 passes at 94.2%. Meanwhile defensively he contributed 2.3 tackles and 0.7 interceptions domestically, and just 1.8 tackles and 0.5 interceptions per game in Europe.

Ancelotti now has lots of decisions to make regarding his midfield – with Alonso, Di María, James, Luka Modric, Asier Illarramendi and Sami Khedira all also still around. Although widely viewed as someone reaching the ‘veteran’ stage of his career, the former Liverpool man is still just 32, and signed a new contract just last January, tying him to the Bernabeu until 2016. Some well-placed Madrid reporters have suggested club figures were unhappy with his current fitness and he could even be sold this summer. There was also an error against Fiorentina in Madrid’s final pre-season game which cost a goal and recalled his poor showings for Spain last summer at the World Cup. 

Age is obviously on Kroos' side. Although not short on experience or medals he is still only 24 - actually just two months older than last season’s 38 million euro 'new Alonso' Asier Illarramendi. Alonso was 23 when he joined Liverpool, and at Anfield often had Javier Mascherano alongside him as a more defensive ‘minder’. It was only really José Mourinho at Madrid that Alonso – then in his late twenties – was relied upon to shore up midfield by himself.

Given his wealth of riches in midfield Ancelotti is probably in no hurry to get on with the succession. For regular Liga games, particularly at home, Kroos could work on his tackling and interceptions and gain the defensive nous required to 'hold' alone, while Alonso gets a chance to rest up. But for bigger games - such as this week's Supercopa double-header against Atletico Madrid - Ancelotti could opt to play both together to ensure his side have the balance they need.

Can Kroos play as the deepest midfielder in this Real Madrid side or do they need Alonso behind him? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below