Supercopa 2nd leg tactical preview: Improvements for Real Madrid

Real Madrid showed last Sunday that Barcelona can't just be beaten in the score, but also in the play. We used a high-pressure system to avoid Barcelona develop those long plays in which they usually keep control of the ball until they're able to get a good chance to score.

Barcelona was forced to get rid of the pressure using the long-ball, and without a tall striker who can play in the air against defenders like Ramos, Carvalho and Pepe, they didn't manage to keep the ball for longer than 10 seconds in a row.

Everything was looking fairly good for Real until fatigue appeared at about the 30th minute of the first half. That level of pressure requires a good shape of every one of the players, but Xabi, Di Maria and Özil did certainly look as if they were ready for the halftime to come.

When Coentrão and Callejón entered the game for Di Maria and Khedira -two of the men that were carrying out harder the task of pressing Barcelona men- we regained some spark and were able again to take control of the game.

It'd be interesting for Real Madrid if they can press more wisely. That is the only way we can maintain the dominance during the whole match. There were some plays in which Di Maria ran after Valdés looking for the steal. I think it's better to press the first defensive line and forget about the Goalkeeper.
Also, with Xavi, Piqué, Busquets and maybe Fábregas playing tomorrow, it will be important to make the spaces in the midfield closer. They couldn't benefit from all that room we left on the midfield with the pressure because their men in charge to give the ball to Iniesta and Thiago were Keita, Mascherano and Abidal. I expect a harder game to control tomorrow.

I was wrong when I though Mourinho was going to play with a 4-3-3, and he put the same starting XI he used in the 5-0 last November. But I do not believe Mourinho's doing the same in Camp Nou, and I think he will start Coentrão tomorrow instead of Di Maria, as I don't see Sunday's Real Madrid with the tactical order that is necessary to play against Barcelona top men in Camp Nou. It is necessary to crowd the midfield if we don't want them to sleep the ball as they usually do.

We have to make them play as we want them to, because we should be the favored team if there are many turnovers and counter-attacks. I really think it's possible to beat them and get the Supercopa. We had outrageous luck, as they only shot Casillas two times during the match, converting both.

Our priority has to be to keep playing like this against their top men, because that would guarantee the win 90% of the times. If the team can accomplish that, we should be pretty happy, and if they can get the win that would be even better, of course.