Atlético Madrid Femenino have recently sacked their head coach Manolo Cano and replaced him with Arturo Ruiz, aiming for better results and a more entertaining overall display on the pitch in order to challenge rivals like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Levante with more conviction and achieve greater results that would hopefully allow them to earn participation in the UEFA Women’s Champions League in the coming seasons and get back to putting on powerful performances on the biggest European stage the way they used to do back in 2019/20 when they reached the Quarterfinals of the tournament.
In fact, Atlético Madrid Femenino used to participate regularly in the UWCL, especially during the period from 2017 to 2021. Las Colchoneras participated four times in this tournament and achieved various stages ranging from the Round of 16, Round of 32 and Quarterfinals. Nevertheless, the club hoped for more and could have built on these good initial results to achieve greater ones in the upcoming seasons. However, the team failed to qualify for the UWCL in 2021–22 and in 2022–23, as they finished 4th in both seasons. Moreover, they are actually holding the 4th spot in the standings at the moment, behind Barcelona, Real Madrid and Levante.
Taking into consideration the reinforcements made during the summer and the very recent change of head coach, Atlético Madrid Femenino definitely need to work harder to reach their seasonal objectives and mainly challenge very seriously to get a UWCL ticket.
Another very important factor that will surely help Atlético Madrid Femenino achieve this target is that Liga F is now granting the third-placed team in the standings a UWCL entry from the “Champions League first round.”
Therefore, Arturo Ruiz and his team should exploit this golden opportunity to be present on the European stage. This can only be done by achieving greater results than their direct opponent, Levante while paying a lot of attention to Madrid CFF, who are just behind them in the standings and can exploit any loss of points from Atlético Madrid Femenino.
In this tactical analysis and scout report, we will explore what went wrong for Manolo Cano, especially during this season, whether from a defensive or an attacking perspective. The analysis will also shed some light on what Arturo Ruiz should work on improving in terms of tactics and how to find better recipes for getting better results and ultimately achieving the needed success at the club.
Formations and player choices
In terms of results, we should say that Atlético Madrid Femenino are finding issues in terms of finishing and chance creation as they drew six games this season, as they lost four times against Barcelona at home and away, UD Tenerife, Levante. With 12 wins, the team’s results can be considered as good overall but not at the level of expectations since they are way distant to the number of wins of Real Madrid for instance who won 17 times so far.
At the same time, this should not be used as an excuse to give up and lose interest in the challenge since Atlético Madrid Femenino still have the chance to overcome Levante, given the one point difference between the two teams. That’s why it will be crucial for Arturo Ruiz to work with the team towards winning or at least avoid losing the last big away game against Real Madrid on May 12, 2024, plus winning the most possible number of points in the other games to keep the challenge alive and avoid falling behind.
In terms of formations, Manolo Cano relied mostly on the 4-2-3-1 and the 4-4-2 formation during this season before getting sacked. It should be said that the 4-4-2 formation was relatively effective for Atlético Madrid Femenino, and perhaps the most convincing example of this formation’s impact was Atlético Madrid Femenino’s 2-1 win against Real Madrid using that formation in the Copa de La Reina.
The 4-4-2 can be used by Ruiz soon, especially on big occasions, even though he started his first match with the team using 4-2-3-1. Therefore, it is more likely that Ruiz will also alternate between these two formations with more reliance on the 4-2-3-1 since he has some reliable wingers such as Marta Cardona, Eva Navarro and effective playmakers who can interpret the advanced playmaker role very well.
In this regard, a veteran player like Estefanía Banini can be exploited way more in this role since she is always capable of creating danger either thanks to her pace and dribbling or to key passing. Also, Ana-Maria Crnogorčević was not getting a lot of playing time under Cano’s management, but she definitely deserves more chances as she can interpret different attacking positions, mainly the winger and advanced playmaker ones.
Moreover, Crnogorčević can also be very effective as a full-back, especially when the team needs a full-back with attacking attributes. In other words, replicating the tactical experiment made on the Swedish Fridolina Rolfö by converting her to play as a left-back so often instead of a winger can pay off like it did with Rolfö at Barcelona.
Alternating between Ludmila, Rasheedat Ajibade and Sheila Guijarro for the striker role and knowing when to rest one of them and when to use the one or two who suit the match needs will be crucial for Ruiz as keeping the strikers fresh and eager to play and score can always determine the final score of the match. Managing the strikers and trying to increase their goalscoring accuracy and improve their finishing rates can help the team a lot this season and especially next season.
For midfield, the choices usually include former Manchester United’s Vilde Bøe Risa and Gaby García or Ana Vitória. At the same time, the defensive duo is usually formed by Carmen Menayo and Cinta Rodríguez, with Ainhoa Moraza and Sheila García as full-backs.
Defensive issues and solutions
It is true that using the 4-4-2 formation ensures that the two defensive lines remain compact and block the opponent’s attacking attempts and passes between the lines so often as the two lines were often close to each other. However, Ruiz will have to work a lot on his players’ reactions and movements without the ball, as many of Atlético Madrid Femenino’s defensive players look slow in their reactions and marking efforts.
So, to make the 4-4-2 a more useful formation against teams with powerful attacking players, it will be vital to work on individual and collective marking when out of possession, according to a defence composed of two lines of four players moving in a synchronised way.
The following example shows one of the positioning mistakes done by Atlético Madrid Femenino’s players and highlights how devastating some of these movements can be. The action shows the midfield line of four marking Real Madrid’s players. However, Eva Navarro was advanced and not on the same line with her midfield teammates at the start of the action.
As you can see here, Navarro tried to retreat quickly when Real Madrid started advancing through the middle. She aimed at anticipating an opponent in the middle of the pitch who was obviously not her direct opponent. This eventually led to leaving gaps on the left for Real Madrid, and they were able to exploit that gap well since Navarro was not well positioned to close that passing interval.
Working on improving defensive positioning and decision-making in each defensive situation will help Atlético Madrid Femenino a lot in conceding less goals per game.
Whether using the 4-4-2 or the 4-2-3-1, the defensive line will have to be much more attentive to overlaps and penetrations from the wings, especially during counter-attacks, when Atlético Madrid Women often fails to defend well and usually leaves gaps for the opponents to penetrate from.
The example of a conceded goal against Real Sociedad clearly shows the gaps within Atlético Madrid’s defence and how distant the defender was from her direct opponent on the right wing. A lot of work will be needed from Ruiz with the defenders on how to always keep eye contact with the direct opponents and on the importance of keeping the posture in the adequate direction to see both the ball and the direct opponent and not just the ball.
Attacking and playmaking improvements
From an attacking perspective, it is going to be very important for the team to have the confidence and motivation of their head coach, knowing that numerous attacking players were not given the necessary trust and boost to perform at their best.
This can only be achieved by giving sufficient playing time to most of the powerful attacking players and communicating well with the ones who don’t get the chance to play as often as the others. Crnogorčević, Banini, Ajibade, and Ludmila, in addition to Sheila Guijarro and Navarro, should all be used regularly in this team, as these players can be very dangerous if they give their best.
Using the wings has been one of Atlético Madrid’s strengths this season, as they were able to create fruitful overlaps on numerous occasions before crossing towards the box and scoring some of the crosses that reached the box. This graphic shows the high number of crosses made from both wings, but at the same time, this highlights the importance of working harder to finish these crosses in a more regular way.
Here is an example of a successful cross and finish from Guijarro following a quick attacking action from the right wing. In fact, Atlético Madrid can be quick in transitions when they want to but do not do so regularly, which makes it difficult for them to break defensive lines against defensively organised teams.
In addition, diversifying the team’s attacking plans can be very beneficial in the long run since there are plenty of choices to choose from depending on situations and on opponents. Using players like Ajibade or Banini to penetrate from the wings, cut inside and shoot or serve Ludmila or Guijarro inside the box can always be a great solution. Crossing from both wings or exploiting set-pieces with more efficiency in aerial duels (by instructing tall players like Gaby García to advance in such situations) are also possible attacking plans.
Moreover, it can be even more fruitful to instruct players with excellent shooting abilities (both power and accuracy), such as Navarro, Ludmila, Crnogorčević and Vilde Bøe Risa, to aim at shooting from the edge of the box and from outside the box when possible as these shots can always create danger especially if executed surprisingly.
Here is one of few goals scored from the edge of the box by Navarro this season, confirming the fact that shots from distance can be crucial and exploiting this talent is necessary in a team having numerous shooters from distance.
Conclusion
Atlético Madrid Femenino are certainly capable of reaching a spot that qualifies them to UWCL next season as they have all that is necessary to achieve greater results than Levante in what remains in this 2023/24 season. At the same time, Ruiz will have to pay a lot of attention to details and try to fix the numerous defensive positioning errors quickly in order to concede less and have a more solid defensive organisation.
From a playmaking and attacking perspective, giving a bit more freedom to Vilde Bøe Risa and Gaby García to join the final third and participate with final passes or shots can be very useful to the team. Also, working intelligently to find the best possible attacking line-ups to each game and using the numerous talents at his disposal according to diverse attacking plans would eventually lead to way better results for Atlético Madrid.
Comments