You can win without a striker

You can win without a striker. The exercise was carried out by Real Madrid at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo. Win without having a battering ram, a finisher. Gone are the days when the BBC carried the offensive weight of the team: someone always came to the rescue. Good with a goal, good with an assist. Due to the number of casualties within the white squad, and the only presence of a finisher, such as Mariano, Zidane lined up a team without a specific striker against Atalanta: he placed Isco as a false center forward, with freedom of movement. Marco Asensio also fell for that position. It is a demarcation that the French coach began to develop with the Balearic Islands in the 2019 preseason, precisely in which he was seriously injured in the United States, in a friendly against Arsenal.

But the play went well for him: Mendy scored, with a shot from the front (“The goal play was rehearsed … but the one who had to finish was not Ferland …”, Zidane explained at the press conference). A shot that surprised Gollini, perhaps somewhat covered by his teammates, perhaps poorly positioned. David Bettoni indicated this to the French defender at the end of the match: “I had discussed it with you!”, He said while they congratulated each other on the victory. It was the final point of a meeting in which the whites were left with honey on their lips to have sentenced the tie, and in which an important aspect must be noted: six of the last eight goals (across all competitions) have been scored by players who are not natural attackers: Against Huesca Varane scored the two goals that helped him to take the three points from El Alcoraz. Mendy scored against Getafe, as against Atalanta. Against Valencia did Kroos and against Valladolid, it was Casemiro who achieved the only goal of the match. Only Benzema, who scored against Getafe and Valencia (opened the scoring in both league games), breaks that rule. A situation that can be repeated next Monday against Real Sociedad in a League match.

But Zidane sees no conflict in that. “It is not a problem, because we marked one and we did not fit. We know that there are many casualties, but we continue with what we continue to do well, ”he explained at a press conference. And there it is. Against Atalanta, in their sixth visit to Italian lands (five in qualifiers and the Champions League final in 2016), a practical victory, ex officio, meager, but also serves to take another step in the continental competition while waiting to recover players (Benzema, Ramos, Hazard, Carvajal, Valverde …) with a view to the future. And it is that the French coach is lucky (rather work, and well resolved, on the other hand) in the country where he established himself as one of the great players of the late twentieth century. And that the game against Atalanta was marked as a litmus test. The bergamasco team is one of the most offensive teams on the continent: averages 2.18 goals per game this year and since 2021 started, the Dea he had pierced the rival net with three or more goals in nine games … until yesterday, when he did not shoot a single time on goal. The one who did it was Mendy, left back: it gave him the victory, time and reinforced confidence in a job well done by Zidane and his coaching staff …