This has been the case with Real Madrid & its Coach Carlo Ancelotti. The Spanish Football Club has always had the Best Football Players in the World, more so this season, however up till now the "names" have not always played up to expectation. In fact, Real Madrid has already lost in Liga to Atletico de Madrid & FC Barcelona while they struggled with "lesser star studded" Clubs like Levante & Elche just to name a few. In fact weeks back some observers were already predicting that Real Madrid had said goodbye to the Liga title.
The problem was have to build a team around the current Stars & not vice versa, work that has cost Ancelotti & his team ( Zidane & Paul Clement ) months. The key is equilibrium, finding a finely tuned balance that has come in great amount with Xabi Alonso. The team began to work well & flows between all parts when Xabi Alonso appeared weeks back from his long injury. However, it now seems that another "ingredient" has added the missing flavour to make it even more tasty, Luca Modric.
The months leading up to now has been a jigsaw puzzle for the Real Madrid technical team trying to fit in all the different pieces. New pieces which included new signings Gareth Bale, Isco, Illaramendi & Carvajal along with youngsters Casemiro, Morata & Jese. This was added with players injured or out of form ( Benzema till recently ) which made the endeavour even more difficult.
It now looks as if that Real Madrid has finally "found itself", that Coach Ancelotti has discovered the missing balance, the equilibrium needed to forge all the "Stars" into a competitive team that plays great Football, defends well & scores plenty of goals. A competitive team with all the rigor of tactical discipline with sparkles of creativity & goals, lots of goals.
Chance played an important part in all this, apart from recovering Xabi Alonso, the unexpected injury of German International Sami Khedira forced Coach Ancelotti to move his system around & find alternatives. Necessity forced the change & the discovery. The unfortunate knee injury to Khedira made Ancelotti change from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 system giving entry to Isco - on the bench weeks back - which has made all the difference, along with finding a place for Gareth Bale. The jigsaw puzzle is now complete with:
Diego Lopez, Arbeloa, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo, Xabi Alonso, Modric, Isco, Bale, C Ronaldo & Benzema
this appears to be "the team", the balanced team that everyone was looking for & desires, at least the results of past games has indicated. The players sacrificed - law of Football Nature - are Di Maria, Illaramendi, Morata & Jese all of which will have to work hard to gain a place.
As with all balancing acts, one needs to maintain the equilibrium & an injury to one of the pieces could tip things off balance. With the players already mentioned working hard to force themselves into the team this "in theory" should not be a problem for the team.
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