Real Madrid played out a 1-1 draw at Mallorca and showed a really frustrating collective performance, and proved that even though this team is phenomenal, there are a few things that need to be figured out. Here are three quick thoughts:
Real Madrid’s build-up, for the first time in years, was bad
In the Super Cup final vs Atalanta, Real Madrid, on many occasions, opted to boot the ball towards the attacking third to retrieve it in an advanced position and attack the opposing team on the counter. This was something Los Blancos haven’t done in at least 10 years because they had two of the best midfielders the game has ever seen. Now, one of them has now left, and the other is no longer a starter.
Against Mallorca — for the first time in the post-Kroos era — Real Madrid started building out from the back in a very unusual setup; and it did not work out for them.
It was not because this team does not have the players to do it — they have the talent to build out from the back and keep possession — it was just that they were not careful enough with their passes. There was no calmness. There were so many unforced errors during the build-up which gave Mallorca a host of chances to attack Thibaut Courtois’ goal. Thankfully, they only conceded one because of numerous defensive interventions from Eder Miitao and Antonio Rudiger.
Until last season, whenever the team was under pressure, they would pass the ball to Toni Kroos, and everything would effortlessly start falling into place because of the calmness that he used to exuberate to the rest of the team. Now, Kroos has left the club, and the midfield did not have that same calmness. Even Luka Modric — who had come on to provide some much-needed fluidity in midfield — gave the ball away carelessly on numerous occasions, even when Mallorca weren’t pressing very high.
The way Real Madrid were set up during the build-up phase was also very, to put this delicately, interesting to note: Real Madrid definitely passed the ball around more this game than they did against Atalanta, but the positions of the players at the start of every sequence was odd to see. In the first half, we saw Rudiger drop into midfield on many occasions, which meant Mendy was a bit closer to Courtois than he normally is. That also meant that whenever Vinicius Jr got the ball, he was generally outnumbered. Ancelotti switched Rudiger and Mendy on numerous occasions — and also sometimes sent Mendy forward where he was almost hugging the flank — and it just led to some really weird passing sequences. We also saw Aurelien Tchouameni sit in the left defensive halfspace when Mendy was forward, similar to where Kroos used to dictate the play, which meant at times there was a gaping hole in the middle.
Here’s the good thing: it’s not a warning sign; it is not a sign of things to come. This was a bad performance from a build-up perspective. Every player made a lot of careless mistakes. It’s not something that would happen every week. Of course, there are concerns, and there are deficiencies. They need to make a few adjustments, figure out what works and stick with it. The team can do well; they have the potential to do exceptionally well, but when you lose one of the greatest controllers to have ever played the game, it will take time before you are able to figure everything out without him.
Bellingham’s brilliance
Jude Bellingham was not quite as good as he was against Atalanta, but he was still one of the best players on the pitch. I talked about his role against Atalanta. Against Mallorca, it was only slightly different: Bellingham started the game a few metres deeper than he was on Wednesday. It was strictly to help with buildup, and it helped, to an extent, but even he gave the ball away because he tried to knock the ball into space for the attackers, but none of them dropped deep enough to receive the ball.
What impressed me was Bellingham’s work on both ends of the pitch. On the defensive end, he was locking down the left side with great tracking and even better tackling — finishing with six tackles. On the other end of the pitch, he was creating chances for his teammates. His final pass was always really good — a lot better than his passes during the build-up — as he had a game-high eight passes into the final third, while also registering two key passes and four shot-creating actions.
It would’ve been better if there was more movement in the attack so that Bellingham could’ve done this more often, but it is a good sign. Bellingham has been Real Madrid’s best player over the two games, and it remains to be seen what his role will morph into in future weeks.
Real Madrid’s set-piece problems still exist
Scoring from set pieces has never been an issue for Los Blancos, but when it comes to defending them, that is another story.
Last season, we saw Real Madrid getting dominated in set pieces but only paying for it a few times. You can call it luck, you can call it heroics from the goalkeepers, but either way, it was bound to get worse this season unless it was worked on. Real Madrid are two games in, and they have already had a howler defensively.
It is not something that can’t be fixed, it is something that just simply doesn’t get fixed, not for the last year or so, at least. Real Madrid’s defending at set pieces — whether it’s zone or man-to-man — is just loose and inefficient and it will lead to more goals in the future. They simply need to be better at marking a player as good in the air as, in this case, Vedat Muriqi. The club boasts players with a lot of aerial quality, but they are being used as a unit ineffectively, and that needs to change before it becomes a recurring problem. Real Madrid were lucky enough to not pay for it last season, but that might not be the case this time around.
