REAL MADRID were supposed to be world beaters this year.
Ending last season as Spanish and European champions they – finally – added Kylian Mbappe, the star who had been in their sights for the past three years.
But after back-to-back Bernabeu thumpings, first at the hands of Barcelona and then AC Milan, even Carlo Ancelotti appears to be scratching his head.
Speaking after the Milan humbling, their second defeat in four Champions League games, Ancelotti said: “What’s not so normal is that this team had a very good run and has fallen so fast.
“But that is part of football too: when you think everything is perfect, you fall.
“The reality is what was seen on the pitch. We have to be worried. We’re lacking something.”
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On recent performances, lacking something appears to be quite the understatement – Don Carlo has a lot on his plate.
MBAPPE
After years of flirting the French superstar finally arrived in the Spanish capital this summer, albeit off the back of a deflating Euro 2024.
He was supposed to be the final piece in an already impressive jigsaw but his arrival has caused more problems than it has solved.
Mbappe has eight goals in all competitions, six of which came in an impressive run of five games, but the forward has unsettled Ancelotti’s plan.
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And his shot conversion rate as plummeted down from an average of 21 at Paris Saint-Germain to just 11.42 at Madrid.
Against Barcelona, his first taste of a fixture he will have played over in his head time and again over the years, things went badly wrong.
The forward was caught offside a shocking eight times – more than any player in one game across Europe’s top league for eight years.
But merely pinning the problems on his arrival could be misleading.
Spanish football expert and pundit, Terry Gibson, told SunSport: “People couldn’t be more wrong.
“He is an easy target, there are loads of reasons why they are faltering.
“He suffered at the start before he scored a goal, but got going and his goalscoring record is good.
“He has moved to a new club, league and position but he is working hard and is a constant threat.
“There are other reasons Real Madrid are struggling.
“It has made it complicated for Ancelotti to find a way of playing but he has failed so far this year to find a system.”
Madrid already trail LaLiga leaders Barcelona by nine points and are in the bottom half of the Champions League table.
BELLINGHAM
Another who looks a touch lost is last season’s boy wonder, Jude Bellingham.
By this time last year, 14 games into his debut season at Madrid, Bellingham had 13 goals.
The England star is still waiting for his first of the campaign.
Fatigue over the summer with the Three Lions spilled into injury at the start of this season, with the 21-year-old missing four games.
But even when fit he looks well off his best, shunted around by Ancelotti as the Italian struggles to find a role for last season’s talisman.
During the summer Ancelotti insisted Mbappe and Bellingham would gel just fine, stating the best players can adapt to any situation.
But neither look happy and the Englishman booted a water bottle after being hooked against Milan midweek.
Thierry Henry leaped to his defence, detailing just how Mbappe’s languid form was hurting Bellingham.
Speaking on CBS, he said: “It’s always Bellingham trying to make the run, trying to make the team play, running in behind, trying to break the line.
“I think there is a little frustration. Your nine isn’t going, and your 10-ish is going. I know it can happen sometimes but not all the time. Every single time.
“He’ll do it because he has to do it, because his desire speaks, his will speaks.
“You don’t win games like that. You don’t win games with your 10 breaking the line, coming back, trying to bend his run, trying to defend, trying to go the other side. And then after, he gets substituted?
“I would have been upset too.”
MIDFIELD MESS
Due to injuries and absences, with Luka Modric also on the wane, Ancelotti has failed to settle on any sort of structure in the middle.
Dani Carvajal’s injury at right-back means the likes of Bellingham are having to be re-shuffled to cover rather than played in his best position.
Aurelien Tchouameni, part of the succession plan to replace Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro, was whistled off in midweek and is fast becoming a scapegoat.
Gibson said: “There is enough there for Ancelotti. It should be Tchouameni, Camavinga and Valverde and Bellingham at the tip of the diamond and then Vini and Mbappe.
“They have to go and get a right-back in January, they won’t win things this year without a right-back.
“They got away with this last year because they had Nacho. He has left and no one else came in.”
ANCELOTTI QUESTIONED
He may be the best of the best when it comes to managers in Europe in recent years, but at Real Madrid no one is above criticism.
There are already rumours swirling of a return for Zinedine Zidane, while fans will cast eyes towards Xabi Alonso working wonders at Bayer Leverkusen.
Gibson said: “I am looking at him and thinking he is changing players and formations. It looks really untidy at the moment. It looks like a group of players making it up as they go along.
“Zidane coming back would be a popular choice. It would be classic Real Madrid.
“I am not saying he should get the sack or leave but there is a big clamour now for Ancelotti to go.
“They have got a weird squad. There are superstars all over the place but they lack depth. They got away with it last season.”
BEHIND THE SCENES
It is not just on the pitch where things look askew.
The hierarchy’s tantrum over Rodri’s Ballon d’Or win, with the club boycotting the ceremony in Paris once it became clear Vinicius would not walk away with the prize, exposed an unhappy camp.
That petulance is seeping down to the dressing room too. Ancelotti has insisted there is a “healthy” atmosphere within the squad.
But the wife of midfielder Fede Valverde recently broke cover, ranting on social media and asking: “When are they going to understand once and for all that Fede is not a winger?”
She then claimed the account had been hacked.
SUMMER
Like all big clubs in Europe, Real Madrid spent most of the summer without their key players.
Madrid went on tour to America, where by the end some of the senior players who did travel out were completely fed up – ready to go home.
Ancelotti’s squad was packed with youth but those talents have hardly been seen yet.
Endrick,18, and Arda Guler, 19, have had limited time on the pitch which, in comparison to rivals Barcelona, is a touch embarrassing.
Hansi Flick took a flock of La Masia graduates on their summer tour and has embedded them into the team rather than dropping them back down.
Gibson said: “One of the criticisms of Ancelotti is he doesn’t use young players.
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“Endrick could play centre-forward but that is not being done apart from when he is off the bench, which isn’t often enough.
“Guler had a fantastic Euros but hasn’t had a look in.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
