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Asencio, Ceballos start in a 4-3-3 – How Real Madrid can line up against Athletic Club
Real Madrid will be aiming to extend their winning run in La Liga when they lock horns with Athletic Club away at San Mames on Wednesday night.
Despite the disappointing form in the UEFA Champions League, where they have lost three games, Los Blancos have managed to pull off favourable results in La Liga.
The reigning Spanish champions head into the game on the back of a solid 2-0 win over Getafe, which has brought them to within just one point of league leaders Barcelona.
Carlo Ancelotti goes into the game against the Basque club boosted by the return of Aurelien Tchouameni who has recovered from his ankle injury.
Jude Bellingham is also fit and available for selection after dealing with a fitness scare during the win against Getafe. David Alaba, Vinicius Jr., Eduardo Camavinga, Dani Carvajal and Eder Militao are out injured.
As Real Madrid get set to take on an in-form Athletic Club, here’s how Ancelotti could set his team up at San Mames.
Defence
Thibaut Courtois is a pivotal player for Real Madrid and is a certain starter between the sticks tomorrow in the Basque country.
Despite Aurelien Tchouameni’s return and availability, Ancelotti is expected to trust breakthrough starlet Raul Asencio once again after the youngster’s rock-solid displays over the past couple of weeks.
The 21-year-old will pair up with Antonio Rudiger at the heart of the Merengues’ defence while Lucas Vazquez and Fran Garcia are likely to continue as the full-backs, with the latter set to start ahead of Ferland Mendy again.
Midfield
With Tchouameni back, Ancelotti has an out-and-out defensive midfielder at his disposal. However, rushing him back into the starting XI might be a risky proposition, especially with more important games on the horizon.
As such, the Real Madrid midfield unit could once again comprise of Dani Ceballos operating in the deeper role after impressing in back-to-back starts against Leganes and Getafe.
Meanwhile, Federico Valverde will be tasked with being the workhorse in the centre of the park, providing assistance in both attacking and defensive facets.
Jude Bellingham, who appears to have found his goalscoring form back again, ought to be the third midfielder on the field for Real Madrid, meaning Luka Modric is left out once again along with teenage sensation Arda Guler.
Attack
With no Vinicius Jr., Kylian Mbappe is set to continue playing from the left-hand side and he will hope to build on his goalscoring performance against Getafe by leading Real Madrid to another victory.
Meanwhile, Rodrygo Goes ought to line up as the centre-forward for the Merengues against Athletic Club, with Endrick seemingly not favoured a great deal by manager Ancelotti.
Brahim Diaz is likely to get the nod on the right flank yet again and he will have an important role to play with his creativity in the final third.
Youngster Gonzalo Garcia, who has been in good form for Real Madrid Castilla, will also be an option for Ancelotti in the final third.
Roma made Real Madrid suffer for over 80 minutes on Wednesday night, and with a 3-1 lead, looked good for the win.
A flurry of set-pieces and accurate conversion, however, saved Los Blancos and helped them take all three points against the run of play.
The true depth of the club’s forward line was on full show on the night as Kylian Mbappe, Endrick and Carlos Espi all scored for Real Madrid and contributed to the 4-1 win.
What the result once again proved, however, is that the team under Jose Mourinho continues to have severe lacunae that will be punished by any elite European opposition.
Madrid Universal brings you three takeaways from Roma 3-4 Real Madrid.
A mess of an encounter
Real Madrid simply seem incapable of winning a game of football without suffering and making a massive mess out of it at this point, and the win last night did not change that perspective in any sense.
Los Blancos were outplayed by Roma for the major part of the night as the hosts played with more intent, attacking freedom and possession against Real Madrid.
Jose Mourinho’s men have been unconvincing on the road this season, and last night appeared set to go down as another defeat until a massive turn of events in the final ten minutes.
Earning back-to-back set pieces, Real Madrid managed to convert a 3-1 deficit into a 4-3 win, but that does not speak to the team’s dominance in any capacity.
In the past, such a remontada would be celebrated as a mark of the team’s mentality, but those feelings do not seem to predominate this time around. Instead, the game is largely being viewed as an outing that exposed Real Madrid’s problems once again, but where they got fortunate enough to take three points.
The signs, at this point, continue to be extremely worrying and Mourinho and Co. have a lot of effort to put in if they are to overturn the team’s situation.
Substitutes outperform the starters
Jose Mourinho’s starting lineup against Roma was a representation of the mental picture the manager has of the team – and was his ‘strongest’ XI on paper.
Summer signings Marc Cucurella and Ibrahima Konate started in defence alongside Antonio Rudiger and Denzel Dumfries.
The ‘Gala’ midfield of Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde joined Jude Bellingham in midfield while Yan Diomande, Vinicius Jr. and Kylian Mbappe all started.
Despite all the big names featuring from the get-go, however, Real Madrid simply failed to create any passage of dominant play, nor did they create regular openings to score. Instead, they remained on the back foot comfortably, and matters only changed after substitutions rolled in.
Mourinho brought on Endrick and Arda Guler at the hour mark, replacing Vinicius and Dumfries, and thereby increased the attacking intensity. With Guler on the field, the team finally had a creative spark and Endrick constantly threatened the box.
Slightly later, the coach brought on Bernardo Silva for Aurelien Tchouameni, handing the team far more stability and control in midfield and restoring some level of order.
The arrivals of Carlos Espi and Alvaro Carreras in the 78th minute finally freed Real Madrid and they managed to pull off the comeback.
Every single one of the players who came on played a significant part in the comeback, be it the stability and creativity Silva and Guler offered or the attacking solutions Endrick and Espi brought. Even Carreras was an upgrade over Marc Cucurella.
How much disarray is too much disarray?
Given how Real Madrid’s midfield has looked this season, there will inevitably come a point when Jose Mourinho pulls the plug on the Valverde-Tchouameni plan.
The manager currently sees the duo as his best defensive midfield combination for the big games, but the disarray in midfield is growing with every game and the duo are unable to provide the control Real Madrid requires.
A breaking point, in that sense, will certainly arrive, but the bigger question is how much disarray is required for the manager to pull the plug on a plan that is clearly not working.
Against Roma last night, the game changed completely after Bernardo Silva came on for Tchouameni, and that alone shows how glaring the midfield problem currently is.
Not only did the Tchouameni-Valverde pairing struggle to keep possession, but they offered no attacking edge or creative spark and even looked shaky defensively.
There is an urgent need to bring the likes of Guler and Bernardo Silva into the starting dynamics for Real Madrid, and only time will tell when Mourinho will decide he has seen enough.
