Real Madrid didn’t really convince in their La Liga debut against Mallorca (1-1) on Sunday evening. A start during which the Madrilenians had trouble building offensively, and where the individual players weren’t up to par, whether we’re talking about Vinicius Jr, Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappé and even Rodrygo despite his nice goal. Carlo Ancelotti is also targeted in the match analyses, he who took time to try to change things while his team struggled on the pitch.
After the match, many journalists and consultants were keen to highlight the big problem that Ancelotti will have this season, especially in matches where Real Madrid is not ahead on the scoreboard. Who should come off the pitch to bring in substitutes? Against Mallorca, the Italian waited until the 87th minute to bring in attacking players like Brahim Diaz or Arda Güler.
Ancelotti’s hands are tied
The Italian will have a hard time taking out Mbappé, Vinicius and Bellingham, and even Rodrygo to a lesser degree, when he needs to bring a new breath of life to the team. For reasons of level of play – difficult to take out players of such caliber when the team needs to score – but also for reasons of ego. And that gets people talking in Madrid. “Despite a luxury bench, Ancelotti will have problems replacing attacking players”explains the SER chain.
“Taking off Mbappé, Bellingham and Vinicius is very complicated, and it’s going to be like that all season. When you’re a coach and you have these players on the pitch and there’s a draw, you don’t take them off. Ancelotti isn’t going to do it, and no other coach in the world. They’re going to play everything.”added radio journalist Antonio Romero. A problem that still needs to be put into perspective, since with such an offensive arsenal, it is very likely that Real Madrid will find themselves ahead in the second half…
