Odegaard's bittersweet start

When Real Madrid told Odegaard that they wanted him back for this 2020-21 season, discarding the verbal pact with Real That he could follow one more course at Anoeta if all the parties so wished, a question was immediately generated in the Madrid environment: is he coming back to make a squad or come back to play? A logical doubt, in a Real Madrid with a Casemiro-Modric-Kroos medullary trident that Zidane has given, among other things, two Leagues and three Champions League, in addition to a fourth man like Valverde who last year won the stars on his shoulder with his deployment and energy, plugging with his youth the deficiencies of his teammates in the average, more loaded with years.

However, Madrid made it run that the return of the Norwegian was Zidane's decision, satisfied with his assignments in Holland (especially the last one at the Vitesse) and, above all, in the Real Sociedad, where he became one of the players in the 2019-20 League, commanding the operations of one of the most attractive teams to watch last season. The coach, aware that the summer of 2020, marked by the coronavirus health crisis and its economic consequences for football, It was high-selling and low-buying (rather none), he saw in Odegaard the possibility of incorporating a high-level medium to generate competition in the engine room. And, for now, he is justifying his decision with facts: two games, two starts for the Nordic.

Convince Zidane

Despite the fact that last season ended with discomfort and the preseason started in the same way, Odegaard insisted on convincing Zidane from the first minute. He shortened his vacation to go to work at the High Performance Center of Sierra Nevada and thus begin preparation with a better point of form. Zidane saw the effort and rewarded it with the inclusion in the eleven of Anoeta, in the second day of LaLiga (Madrid has postponed the first one). As the midfielder of a 4-2-3-1, he left 69 minutes of flashes, without major significance.

To make matters worse, on his return from San Sebastián he gave a false positive for COVID-19 in a PCR test that threatened to cut Real Madrid's pace in the bud, but the subsequent test confirmed that there was no infection. However, that led him to join the group late, which did not prevent Zidane from re-aligning him as a starter in Seville against Betis, again as a midfielder in a 4-4-2 with the medullary forming a diamond. Again, some flashes, but a bitter end: he left Carvalho very loose in the action of 2-1 and Zidane left him on the bench after the break, giving entrance to Isco. Even so, Odegaard has reason to smile, as Zidane seems to place him, at least for the moment, in the group of headlines and others are rotating.

Odegaard: attacking midfielder or inside

But not everything is going so well. The intermittent performance can have, and in fact has several explanations: the discomfort that has been dragging by a patellar tendinopathy in the right leg, the short preparation (although it was not with Norway, by choice), the absence of friendlies to shoot to the white team (only one, against Getafe) … and the system, where Odegaard does not seem to find himself.

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Zidane seems to send a clear message with his line-ups: the midfield and interior positions, with Casemiro, Valverde, Modric and Kroosare well covered; It is in the midfielder where Odegaard has his place for the French coach, a place that advances him too much on the pitch and forces him to play too long on his back and too little facing the game. So far this year, he averages 54 passes and 46 good trips every 90 minutes.; last year, at La Real, they were 53 and 45, respectively. Very similar numbers, but in very different contexts: Real gave 485 passes per game last season and averaged 56% possession; Madrid, at the moment, gives 616 per match and their average possession is 61%.

More ball, less influence

That is to say: he has landed in a team more in line with his conditions, with more ball and more circulation, up to 131 more displacements per game than in the Real one a year ago, but all that extra play flow falls to others. At La Real, his best level came from inside on the right, with space to receive and start the plays, as well as to launch diagonals with which to take out his left foot more easily, great in the middle distance. Last season, he averaged one shot every 70 minutes in the league; this year, at 114 'and playing closer to the area, none at the moment.