Los Blancos were held to a 1-1 draw by Mallorca in their opening La Liga match of the season in what was a frustrating evening for their forwards
Jude Bellingham does not mince his words. Though less than two months removed from his 21st birthday, the Real Madrid midfielder does not see himself as some junior member of the Blancos' dressing room. Rather, Bellingham not only leads with his performances, but also with how he deals with team-mates, as his former Borussia Dortmund colleagues will attest to.
So when footage emerged of the England international in conversation with Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo at half-time of Madrid's opening-day draw with Mallorca on Monday morning, it didn't come as a shock to see Bellingham admonishing the attacking trio for their profligacy in front of goal.
"You three, you need to finish the attack, because the running back… is f*cking hard," Bellingham seemed to say, before instructing some of the best forwards in world football to make space for themselves and shoot, rather than look for an extra pass around the penalty box.
He had a point, as the numbers from Sunday's encounter make for underwhelming reading. Madrid mustered just 13 shots over the course of the 90 minutes, with only five on target, and didn't create a single 'big chance'. Mallorca actually beat them when it came to expected goals (xG), with Vinicius in particular guilty of overplaying in attacking areas.
The world-class attack that was meant to take La Liga by storm, then, failed to click on opening night. It was disjointed, and while all four players were involved in Madrid's opening goal, it required some individual brilliance from Rodrygo to finish off what was otherwise a bit of a messy move.
Getty Images SportWhat went wrong?
Signs that this might happen could be seen during Madrid's win over Atalanta in the UEFA Super Cup in the days that preceded their league opener. For all of their brilliance on the night, Madrid's four attacking players all prefer to occupy the same spot on the pitch, in that they are all right-footed and like to drift to the left-hand side before cutting inside.
Admittedly, they do go about it slightly differently from one another. Vinicius, to his credit, can go left or right, while Bellingham looks to duck and weave both vertically and horizontally. Mbappe, by contrast, prefers to make a beeline toward goal, while Rodrygo cuts, feints and releases. Still, starting points are everything in football, and space needs to be exploited when it is created. However, if there is no one there to exploit it, that's when attacks break down.
On more than one occasion on Sunday, all four of Madrid's most prominent attacking players were within a 15-yard radius of one another. Ancelotti's side had control of possession, but Mallorca's defence were able to crowd out some of the planet's most devastating players because they were all so easy to keep track of.
AdvertisementGettyMbappe should know better
No one is entirely blameless for Sunday's effort, and all four players should be tactically intelligent enough to find new spaces to thrive in. But Mbappe, the summer signing on the astronomical wages, should be an expert when it comes to these things.
The France captain was placed into the ultimate tactical limbo by virtue of putting on a Paris Saint-Germain shirt from 2021-2023, as that meant sharing a pitch with both Lionel Messi and Neymar. Two different managers tried to get the trio to become a wholesome unit, and neither really could. Mbappe, once again, liked the left side of the pitch, but so did Neymar, while Messi would occasionally float over there, too.
It was Mbappe's duty in that team to find the spaces where the other two weren't, and make the kinds of clever runs that would unlock opponents. It worked, in some cases, as PSG won a lot of games, and it was more the team's defensive shortcomings – which the attacking triumverate absolutely contributed to – that proved their undoing in the Champions League.
Mbappe, then, has first-hand experience of trying to compromise and come up with solutions alongside other world-class talents. This may not be a dressing room of comparable large personalities – no one can really out-ego Neymar – but he should be able to use his experience from Parc des Princes to his benefit now.
Getty ImagesPost-Kroos problems
It's fair to point out, too, that Madrid's attackers were not the only players who under-performed at Son Moix on Sunday.
Fede Valverde, complete with bleached blonde hair and a new No.8 shirt that meant he could have been mistaken for Toni Kroos, had one of his worst performances for over a year, which in part could have been down to the loss of the German star.
This was the first truly competitive game Madrid have played since Kroos' retirement, and though Aurelien Tchouameni was tidy enough in possession, he didn't offer the same incision as his former team-mate. Valverde perhaps felt he needed to take that role on himself given Bellingham was more occupied with supporting the attack, but the Uruguay international misplaced too many passes and lacked some of his trademark stamina as the hot temperatures sapped him of his energy.
As much as getting the four most forward-thinking players to gel is a priority for Ancelotti, ensuring his midfield are able to control games now Kroos has gone and Luka Modric is a bit-part player is arguably as important.
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Getty ImagesPotential solutions
So aside from Bellingham's advice of "finishing attacks", how do Madrid ensure these teething problems do not grow into something more concerning?
Well, it's worth first remembering that these are early days for everyone involved. Bellingham and Mbappe were both on holiday when Vinicius and Rodrygo were playing in the United States on Madrid's pre-season tour, and so even if you consider the Super Cup a competitive game – which takes a certain amount of generosity – the quarter have shared the pitch for just over 150 minutes. This is nowhere near enough of a sample size to make any sincere judgments.
That said, there are some potential quick fixes. Perhaps the most obvious – and most harsh – would be to bench Rodrygo and throw another midfielder into the team. Eduardo Camavinga, who is currently nursing a minor injury, would be the ideal player to come in and provide energy alongside Tchouameni in a box midfield, with Valverde and Bellingham further forward behind Mbappe and Vinicius.
It will also be important for Dani Carvajal to be as involved going forward as he was last term. With most of Madrid's attacks going through Vinicius and Bellingham on left, right-back Carvajal was left with acres of space to gallop into, where he could either stay on the touchline to spread the opposition defence or drift inside to create an overload in the penalty area. The result was a career-best campaign for the 32-year-old, who contributed six goals and five assists in all competitions, including the opener in the Champions League final.
So far in the opening couple of games of 2024-25, Carvajal has held his ground far more, with Mbappe coming in for Kroos meaning there is far less defensive cover against opposition counter-attacks. Ancelotti needs to ensure that one of his most potent – and surprising – forward threats from last season isn't being neutered by his change in system.