In his second exclusive Masterclass for The Coaches’ Voice, former Real Madrid midfielder Álvaro Benito explains how he set his teams up to attack during his four years coaching at the Real Madrid Academy.

He goes into fascinating detail about the principles he would encourage in his players – most commonly set up in a 4-3-3 formation – to progress against teams sitting in a defensive mid-block. These included asking his centre-backs to be courageous in their passing, requiring his full-backs to position themselves so as to occupy opposing wingers and full-backs, and trying to get attacking midfielders receiving in space and between the lines.

Benito also describes how he would change his approach depending on the qualities of the players he had at his disposal, including a talented number 10 and a forward who thrived on direct play.