Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishIt was Real Madrid’s first home defeat to a bottom-half side in La Liga for more than four years. But given the sheer number of chances they have conceded this season, Saturday’s stoppage-time 2-1 loss to Valencia cannot have brought too many complaints from Carlo Ancelotti’s side.Madrid have shown structural weaknesses throughout their 2024-25 campaign, but the lack of cohesion in their defensive shape — a 4-4-2 system in which they press irregularly and leave gaps behind their midfield — has often been masked by moments of individual brilliance in the attacking third of the pitch.Their set pieces have followed a similar trend.Vinicius Junior dragged his team back into the game at the weekend from a flicked-on corner, not long after his reigning Spanish and European champions were completely crowded out from a Valencia dead-ball delivery.Four days earlier, they were taken into extra time in their Copa del Rey semi-final against Real Sociedad after failing to deal with a wide free kick but found crucial set-piece goals of their own from Aurelien Tchouameni and Antonio Rudiger either side of conceding a calamitous Mikel Oyarzabal free header.“They have two sides to them,” Christian Moya, who worked as a set-piece analyst at La Liga side Alaves this season, tells The Athletic. “As well as they attack the ball from set plays, they have been defending them quite poorly for a while.”Aside from the result, the Valencia defeat will have made for good viewing for Nicolas Jover, who will be in charge of dead-ball routines for Madrid’s Champions League quarter-final opponents Arsenal when the sides meet at the Emirates Stadium for the tie’s first leg tonight (Tuesday).Only one La Liga side have conceded more goals directly from corners this season than Madrid and no Premier League team have scored more from them than Arsenal.This is what Jover and his fellow coaches at the north London side may have picked up on.Moya is a coach with first-hand experience of preparing to face Madrid.For him, their approach to defending corners and wide free kicks represents a “weak spot”, and one that a team such as Arsenal — even without the towering presence of Brazilian centre-back Gabriel, who will miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury — can exploit.“They adopt a bit more of an English style,” says Moya, gesturing towards a cluster of Madrid defenders in the six-yard box in one example. “In Spain — at Alaves or Rayo Vallecano, for example — we tended to defend with two or three players marking zonally and the rest going man-for-man.“Madrid have adopted what a lot of Premier League teams do, although not as extreme, defending zonally with up to six players and leaving two or three as ‘blockers’ further out.”The problem for Madrid this season has not been their approach but having the players to make the plan work. Long-term injuries to accomplished front-post defenders Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao have reduced their effectiveness at clearing the ball in these situations.“They have a height problem,” says Moya. “They don’t have many tall players who are physically strong, apart from Rudiger, Tchouameni, maybe (Jude) Bellingham, leaving them light on expert set-piece defenders in that crucial zone close to goal.”Vinicius Jr has been tasked with becoming one of the blocking players since fellow forward Kylian Mbappe’s arrival last summer, with the latter waiting on the edge of the box for any opportunity to use his pace to spring a Madrid counter-attack.“If you have players like Vinicius, Rodrygo, Luka Modric, Lucas Vazquez in man-to-man duels, they are not specialists in this situation, they are not tall, don’t have an aerial presence, and are not aggressive,” says Moya. “It’s easy to escape from them, to shrug them off, and this is where Arsenal could really cause damage, with the movement, force, and strength of their players in the box.”The visualisations below make clear how Arsenal can attack Madrid’s areas of weakness.Declan Rice has delivered 78 per cent of their corners from the left in the Premier League this season and has been remarkably consistent at finding the first contact in the six-yard-box, while the fit-again Bukayo Saka has assisted three headed goals from corners, scored from an average of 3.8 yards out.“This graphic is really telling, especially those corners from the left,” says Moya. “They occupy the three zones of the six-yard box so well — nearly 90 per cent — where of course it’s much easier to score from. It’s perfect, really.“Arsenal have the three fundamental things that, for me, lead to set-piece effectiveness. First, the delivery, second, the movement to attack the ball; and third, how they are spaced out in the box. They occupy all parts of the penalty area well, and that allows multiple players to arrive and meet crosses from high-value positions.”Compare that to where Madrid have conceded first-contact attempts on goal from corners and the potential for Arsenal to make a dent in this tie at dead-ball situations becomes even clearer.Madrid’s figure for xG (expected goals) per shot directly from corner deliveries is the highest in La Liga this season, which suggests that when they concede opportunities from a whipped set piece, they tend to be dangerous, close-range chances.Going through the footage, poor defending from Madrid’s assigned blockers crops up repeatedly.The very first goal they this season came from a corner, as Mallorca’s 6ft 4in (194cm) striker Vedat Muriqi broke through their three-man defensive screen to head home from point-blank range. Four of Madrid’s six zonal players (circled in white) are taken out of the game by the height of the delivery, while the man-to-man players (in yellow) struggle to deal with Muriqi’s physicality.“It’s very strange to see Mbappe in the box marking,” says Moya, “but it’s Gameweek One, maybe the player roles weren’t completely clear. (When they were) Watching this corner back, I imagine Madrid said, ‘Look, Mbappe isn’t going to work here, it doesn’t make sense’.”The Frenchman gets practically shoved out of the way after both he and Rodrygo lose their men and zonal marker Rudiger can’t recover in time, allowing Muriqi a free header at goal.Things have not improved much for Madrid with Vinicius Jr in that screening role, though. They conceded four shots from corners in a match last month against Betis — as many as they have allowed in a single La Liga game in more than five years.Our next example is from that night. As Antony lines up the corner, the three blockers can be seen outside the six-yard box, with Vinicius Jr struggling to contain Johnny Cardoso, the player who had three of those four headed shots on Madrid’s goal in this match.Two seconds later, the camera angle switches and Cardoso has left his marker behind. Vinicius Jr is seemingly uninterested in trying to make up the ground between them as the ball is played in.Meanwhile, the 5ft 8in Modric is bumped off balance by 6ft tall Betis centre-back Marc Bartra, who ends up making contact with the ball, sending a free header wide.“The man-for-man players can’t lose their runners, they have to be stuck to them until the play ends,” says Moya. “These are big errors that can’t happen against a team like Arsenal.“If I were Madrid having to defend against Arsenal, I would change the marking system and take one of the better aerial defenders — Tchouameni or Rudiger — from zonal responsibilities and put them man-to-man. Although Tchouameni is out of the first leg (suspended after picking up three yellow cards in this season’s Champions League), so that reduces their options even more.“I have a feeling that’s what Real Madrid will do — have four zonal players and four blockers rather than five and three. It’s not something that they do often but, against a team who are going to demand a lot from them, it would make sense to track Arsenal’s biggest threats with their best headers of the ball.”Removing a player from that crowded six-yard box could also help to ease another problem — freeing goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.Although he is tall at 6ft 6in and accomplished at claiming crosses, Madrid’s zonal system can often impede their Belgian No 1 in terms of leaving his line. Last week, Ancelotti said he was confident Courtois would be fit for this first leg (he has missed their past three games with a leg muscle injury) and on Monday, Courtois said he was “fine” and that the injury was a minor issue.“If there are five players surrounding him, in addition to three or four from the opposing team, his area of influence diminishes,” says Moya. “Madrid need to try to find a better balance than they have right now.”The goal that Madrid conceded to Betis among that flurry of set pieces brings together all those major issues.With Brahim Diaz blocking off a short corner, Mbappe on the edge of the box and five zonal players, the blockers instantly have a problem. Aside from their average height of 174cm (5ft 9in), they are outnumbered.“You are always going to have a superiority if you put four attacking players around the penalty spot, because Madrid are only going to defend with three,” Moya explains. “Not reacting to that overload is a problem.”Cardoso makes the run through the middle of the screen and, despite first taking a step out to meet the cross, Courtois retreats to his line as he expects Rudiger to make the clearance.The Germany centre-back does not do so, however, which allows United States international midfielder Cardoso a free run to score, with Courtois rooted to the spot in the middle of his goal.“Again, one of Rudiger or Tchouameni should be helping with the man-marking, because this is too easy for Cardoso to get a run on the ball,” says Moya. “That said, they don’t do their job in the zonal marking either — one of them should clear the ball — and Courtois should be more decisive. Retreating only gives the advantage to the opposition player, who arrives with momentum.”That overload around the penalty spot was even clearer to see against Valencia at the Bernabeu on Saturday, as the away side piled five players into the man-to-man zone (represented by the yellow box below).Still, Madrid persisted with their five zonal markers (in the white box), leaving Modric, Garcia and Brahim to track the runners. Unsurprisingly, the blocking trio offered little resistance, as two attackers taller than any outfield player in the Madrid team — Umar Sadiq and eventual goalscorer Mouctar Diakhaby (both 6ft 3in) — are given a free run to meet the cross.With momentum on the Valencia pair’s side, there is not much Tchouameni or Rudiger can do.Issues with the blockers, problems with an overload, trouble clearing the ball, and indecision between the sticks — these are all elements that suggest Arsenal’s precise deliveries on top of the goalkeeper could do real damage over the two legs against Madrid.At the core of Madrid’s set-piece struggles are problems with player height that cannot be solved.Vinicius Jr (5ft 9in) and Rodrygo (5ft 8in) will surely start tonight, and it’s possible Vazquez (also 5ft 8in) and Brahim (5ft 7in) are going to be on the pitch too. All would then need to contribute to the team effort in defending against dead-ball deliveries. That suggests it’s advantage Jover and Arsenal.“He is the best set-piece coach in Europe,” says Moya. “We’re going to see lots of routines, crosses not just from corners but from wide free kicks — we saw Madrid struggle with that against Real Sociedad — that will be focussed around the penalty spot.“Arsenal will try to block the important defenders and will make it difficult for Courtois to come out. If they can disrupt Rudiger, they will have lots of opportunities, because the rest of the man-to-man duels will be in their favour.”Madrid were without the rested Rudiger for their trip to Villarreal in March, opening up the chance for the home side’s Alex Baena to attack that weakened zonal structure with his inswinging corners.Again, the Madrid blockers lack height and strength, allowing their runners to get into the six-yard box.Baena delivers to the front post and, with one of their commanding aerial-duel winners absent, Madrid fail to win the first contact and allow the ball into the danger zone, for Juan Foyth — pictured on the penalty spot above — to run in from deep and stab it home.
Juan Foyth nets against Real Madrid! 🇦🇷
What a start for Villarreal who take the lead after seven minutes of play at the Cerámica 🟡
𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 @SBK | 18+ | 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝐺𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑦 pic.twitter.com/Ap5597a6G2
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) March 15, 2025“If you don’t win that first ball, it’s a lottery,” Moya says. “You don’t know where the ball is going to go. Arsenal attack the front post well and will be looking to target that. Knowing how Jover works, I have a feeling they will use the routine with three, four, or five players at the back post, who then rapidly jump to the front post to attack.”It’s a ploy we saw against West Ham in November, and one that will allow Arsenal to simultaneously shackle the important Madrid defenders, drag the blockers around, target the weak area at the front of the six-yard box and attack the delivery with power, shaking off uninterested markers along the way.Keeping Madrid’s forward players quiet enough across the 180 minutes (and possibly more) for them to win this tie and go through to the semi-finals is another question.But if there was ever a time for Arsenal’s attacking set-piece prowess to come to the fore, it is now.(Top photos: Getty Images)
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