If you ask this random question to a football fanatic, 3 out of 5 will say Real Madrid. But why? Is it only the charismatic appearance of CR7 or there is something else!The flourishing fan base of RMA consisting of 159.5m worldwide is one of the well established and prospering statistics after the Catalan Giant Barcelona (159.9m). In their streak of success, I am here to pick out one of the major success mantras of the Spanish Champion who are aggressive in nature yet remain under the shroud. The Madrid Coach Zinedine Zidane, one hundred games are now up for him. He made his ‘Triple Figured’ coaching experience in the match against Getafe last Saturday. From his 100 games, he won 75 out of them, facing just 8 defeats, which is way better than Rafa Benitez from whom he took the charge in January last year. He has won two UCL back to back and La Liga is also in his pocket. Many say his team is lucky. Is it so? But how he got so much in such a small time, there is something you want to know.

Maybe it is surprising, but this Frenchman has achieved this place with minimal coaching experience after taking the Head Coach position. He had only a short period of coaching in the youth team of Real Madrid. But what clicked for him was his temperament and knowledge. The best managers of the world know their team’s strength and weaknesses. If we see the squad closely enough we can notice this side has strong aerial qualities along with outstanding outside backs. In general, they possess the 20-30 meter area adjacent the penalty box. For this, they can create a space in front of the goal to take a clinch when the ball is crossed. Many teams fail to score like this from the wing play as they don’t or cant bait out the defenders to make this free space.

Luka Modric and Toni Kroos play a pivotal role in this organized attacking side. Keeping in mind the outside backs, Carvajal and Marcelo play as wingers. This creates an empty space next to the center backs where this midfield duo plays their role. They are the offensive minds, lead the ball where it should be done. They fill up the above space and they can play the ball towards goal having sufficient time in hand. In case of loss of possession, when the opponent breaks the Modric-Kross-Isco barrier, then Madrid becomes vulnerable as happened when Messi scored in El Classico. Madrid possesses the game by ‘Side by side pass’. They continuously overload one part of the pitch using short quick passing, isolating the outside backs.This makes most of the chances of 1v1 and if it fails then they serve an early cross to the awaiting striker.

The final piece of this puzzle is the ‘Finish’ where Christiano, Benzema, Asensio play the trick for them. The key to finish is the timing and if the team can create some more space to launch the shot then it becomes easy to score. The strikers make this happen by running to the second post when the outside backs or wingers receive the ball. In the season 2016-17, 28% of their goals came from headers.

Along with this, he is an expert in seeing the talent. He has bought players like Morata, Ceballos and the recent U17 star Vinicius Junior from Brazil.

So this is how Zidane maps his tactics, knowing the opponent’s flaws, he hammers in the soft parts. He is a brilliant Manager indeed. Though having the best players of the world on his side is an advantageous position for him but one can’t easily neglect his master brain. He is now in the 4th position after Del Bosque with 7 club trophies in the records list and we hope a much more will come for this hardworking fellow!​