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Carvajal, Brahim start in a 4-3-3 – How Real Madrid can line up against Real Betis
Real Madrid will face off against Real Betis later tonight in La Liga, hoping to keep their slim hopes of a late title push alive.
The Merengues are nine points behind leaders FC Barcelona with six games left to be played in the season. But with the Clasico still to come and the Catalans losing their best player, Lamine Yamal, to an injury, there may be some hope for a turnaround.
Real Madrid go into the game on the back of a 2-1 win over Deportivo Alaves earlier in the week. Having brought an end to a four-game winless run, the Spanish capital giants will be eager to bag three more points tonight at Estadio de La Cartuja.
The last time these two teams met, Real Madrid secured a thumping 5-1 victory over Real Betis, courtesy of a brilliant hat-trick from academy graduate Gonzalo Garcia.
However, manager Alvaro Arbeloa has lost two key players heading into tonight’s match as both Eder Militao and Arda Guler are out for the season with hamstring injuries. Rodrygo Goes and Thibaut Courtois remain unavailable as well.
So, there will at least be a couple of changes to the starting lineup compared to Tuesday night’s game against Alaves at the Santiago Bernabeu. With that being said, here’s how Real Madrid could take the field against Manuel Pellegrini’s men.
Defence
With Courtois still not available, Andriy Lunin will continue in the Real Madrid goal. The Ukrainian has failed to keep a single clean sheet so far this season and will be hoping to change that tonight.
Meanwhile, amidst all the rumours of a tense relationship between himself and Arbeloa, Real Madrid captain Dani Carvajal could finally get a start at right-back ahead of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
With Militao getting ruled out, Antonio Rudiger should come into the team at centre-back, where he will partner Dean Huijsen. David Alaba and Raul Asencio, back from his illness, will be options on the bench.
On the left side of the defence, there could be a change with Fran Garcia getting an opportunity ahead of Alvaro Carreras.
Midfield
With Arda Guler missing out, there could be a slight tweak in the Real Madrid midfield in terms of shape, as Arbeloa could revert to a three-man setup and add a forward on the pitch.
Aurelien Tchouameni, who has been one of Real Madrid’s top performers this term, will occupy the deepest position in the middle of the park.
Meanwhile, Federico Valverde and Jude Bellingham will take up the remaining two positions in midfield, providing attacking impetus to the team from the centre.
Attack
With Guler’s spot vacant, Brahim Diaz is expected to get the nod against Real Betis, given his solid showings in recent weeks. The Moroccan international ought to take up the right flank for Real Madrid at Estadio de La Cartuja.
Kylian Mbappe, set to make his 100th appearance for Real Madrid, will operate as the centre-forward, while Vinicius Jr. will take up his customary role on the left wing.
The likes of Gonzalo Garcia and Franco Mastantuono will hope to get some minutes off the bench.
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.
