Poor squad planning coming back to haunt Real Madrid – Opinion

Following the La Liga and UEFA Champions League triumphs last season, hopes at Real Madrid were quite high for this 2024-25 season. These hopes of seeing an unstoppable Merengue team were further strengthened as the club added Kylian Mbappe, one of the best forwards in the world, and Endrick, another highly promising Brazilian talent, to their already fearsome squad.

With these two additions, Real Madrid made their attacking lineup even scarier. Meanwhile, there were also some key departures, especially that of Toni Kroos.

Everyone understood that replacing the German would be an impossible task for any club, but Los Blancos were seemingly confident that the amount of talent present in the midfield would be able to mask the deficiencies caused by the German maestro’s departure.

Similarly, Nacho Fernandez, another key player for the team last season, especially after the injuries to Eder Militao and David Alaba, also left the club after deciding not to renew. Real Madrid actually tried to replace him by pursuing the French defender Leny Yoro but were not willing to shell out as much money as Manchester United, the club the defender ultimately joined.

Without Nacho and without David Alaba, for whom there is still no return date in sight, Real Madrid started the season with only Antonio Rudiger and Eder Militao as their trusted and natural first-team centre-backs. Aurelien Tchouameni was to be the emergency centre-back, while Jesus Vallejo was also present in the squad but not really trusted by Ancelotti.

As a result, Ancelotti relied mostly on Rudiger and Militao to be his centre-backs. Rudiger has been playing nonstop since the start of the season, and is the second most-used player in the Real Madrid squad, only behind Federico Valverde.

On the other hand, Militao suffered several minor injuries in the three months since the start of this season. But last night, his body once again gave away as he suffered another ACL tear, this time in his right leg. The defender is set to undergo surgery now and is not only expected to miss the rest of the season, but this injury can end up having very serious implications for his career at large.

Thus, Carlo Ancelotti will only have Antonio Rudiger as his available centre-back going forward. Raul Asencio’s cameo last night was quite encouraging, but it remains to be seen how he will perform in the upcoming games.

Furthermore, the right-back position is also in shambles, as Dani Carvajal is also out for the rest of the season with another ACL injury, while Lucas Vazquez, who is the only available right-back and who has left a lot to be desired in his last few performances in this position, also suffered an adductor muscle injury and is expected to miss the next three weeks of action.

These losses made things even worse for Real Madrid, but the team was also far from its best even when these players were available. Despite the presence of big names, the attack is not performing at its best, and Kylian Mbappe is clearly struggling to get going in his new team.

The midfield is also not creating as many chances for the forwards as they would like, and one cannot help but notice the absence of a player as good as Toni Kroos, who orchestrated the team’s movement from the middle of the pitch for the last 11 years.

Real Madrid might bring some reinforcements in winter, but there are still two months before January, and this situation definitely points to some very poor squad planning by a club that was only a few months ago seen as one of the shrewdest planners in Europe.