Welcome back! Today I’m discussing Zinedine Zidane, taking a look at his history as a manager and analysing how he gets the best out of his players through tactics, development and man management, using his two spells at Real Madrid as examples.

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Born in Marseille in 1972, Zinedine Zidane is a former professional footballer who played in attacking midfield. One of the greatest players of all time, Zidane began his career at Cannes in 1989 before playing for Bordeaux, Juventus and Real Madrid, ultimately retiring in 2006. After hanging up his boots, Zidane returned to football in 2010 as a first team advisor to Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid followed by a spell as Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant. Zidane worked with Real Madrid Castilla for a time before being appointed as the head coach of the first team in 2016. In two and a half years, Zidane won 3 Champions League trophies as well as Madrid’s first La Liga title since 2012. Zizou resigned in 2018 but was ultimately reappointed in early 2019 after Julian Lopetegui and Santiago Solari both struggled. Zidane regained La Liga in his first full season and finished second in the 2020/21 campaign before resigning again so at the time of release, Zinedine Zidane is without a job.

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Tactically, Zidane has shown himself to be excellent. The Frenchman has used a range of shapes throughout his career, often choosing the system that will give his side a natural advantage against his opposition although his go to shape is the 4-3-3. In over 260 games as Real Madrid manager, Zizou has deployed the shape 179 times. Whilst this formed the basis for most of his success, Zidane adapted accordingly in the Champions League and his back to back to back winners highlight his evolution: moving from the 4-3-3 in his 15/16 success to a 4-4-2 diamond as a response to the popular flat 4-4-2 at the time and Gareth Bale’s injury problems before he returned to the 4-3-3 and utilised a flat 4-4-2 himself in the 2017/18 campaign.

Despite the pragmatism, Zidane does have core principles. Unlike many of the most successful coaches in the modern game, Zidane favours simplicity. The Frenchman creates a system that is player focused and allows his star men to make correct decisions, he just chooses the right star men for the occasion. That being said, there were consistencies with Zizou’s tactics. Where possible he used a midfield three with two playmakers anchored by a destroyer. Famously this was Toni Kroos and Luka Modric ahead of Casemiro and this trio were able to completely control the tempo of a game. Whilst these midfielders orchestrated, the creativity was pushed onto the full backs who held the width and allowed Madrid’s forwards to operate closer to goal.

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A world class man manager that gets respect because of his ability as a player, Zinedine Zidane is a tactically very astute manager that’s comfortable with a number of different shapes and systems. Whilst he’s never built a team up from the ground his ability to get the best out of superstars means he’ll turn a team of great players into winners.

But anyway guys what do you think? How good is Zinedine Zidane? And where do YOU THINK he’ll be managing next? Let me know in the comments below.

#Zidane #TacticsExplained

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