One of the most frequent questions asked by Real Madrid fans is whether Aurélien Tchouaméni is a Casemiro 2.0. If we analyze how the new signing of the 14-time player from Europe has played since his debut with Bordeaux, We are facing an erroneous statement. In his first two seasons in the elite, the French international he always played as a double pivot who, in turn, was a pure defensive midfielder. At Girondins de Bordeaux he acted alongside Otávio, a midfielder who never joined the attack and who watched his back so that Tchouaméni could play freely to join the attack or to leave the area to cut off rival attacks.
In 2020, the year in which Tchouaméni signed for the monaco at a rate of €18 million, history practically repeats itself. During his first months in El Principado, Robert Moreno, who was the team’s coach at the time, placed him in a double pivot next to Bakayoko. The current Milan player was the anchor for Monaco, while Tchouaméni was the player who moved the most in the midfield in that double pivot that could hardly be developed, since the coronavirus pandemic arrived.
Months later, already with Niko Kovac on the bench, Tchouaméni shone again in a double pivot, this time with Youssouf Fofana, a player of muscle, work and sacrifice without the ball, although he can also play inside. In the 3-2-4-1 that the Croatian coach used, that double pivot, who did not have much mobility, was used to attract rivals and, when the team defended without the ball and pressed in the rival field, Tchouaméni was the one who played further forward thanks to his extraordinary ability to steal.
With the french team, history repeats itself. Since he met his first call in October, the new Real Madrid player has always been used in double pivot, mostly together with Ngolo Kanté and with a distribution of roles, since both have acted both as bodyguards and as launchers of France’s attacks.
If there were doubts about whether Tchouaméni could play as the only midfielder in a system that did not use the double pivot, they were dispelled in January, the month in which Monaco made official the dismissal of Niko Kovac and the appointment of Philippe Clement as Monegasque coach. With the Belgian, the former Girondins de Bordeaux player acted in a 4-1-4-1 in which there was only one positional midfielder. It mattered little to him. Tchouaméni exploded again like an octopus with insatiable tentacles that he stole an anomalous number of balls per game, In addition to providing balance to his team and, above all, with a more than acceptable ball output, compensating for the lack of technique in the first control with his wingspan to hide the ball the opponent to turn from side to side.
Although Carlo Ancelotti has been characterized in his last stage at Real Madrid by playing with a single positional midfielder (Casemiro) and two interiors (Kroos and Modric with Valverde acting outside as support midfielder), It cannot be ruled out that with Tchouaméni Real Madrid will be seen playing with a double pivot this season. In fact, it is intuited that he will do it even with Casemiro, since if something has characterized the French midfielder it is always play with a player behind you who watches your back so that he can be even more aggressive in stealing in the rival field, acting as an interior in defensive tasks.