Mbappé, Vinicius, Bellingham… Will Ancelotti really find the key?

In football, you have to know how to talk numbers. Since the start of the 2024-2025 season, Real Madrid have played seven games in all competitions. In total, the Merengue have won five and drawn two, including a European Super Cup title against Atalanta Bergamo, with 14 goals scored and only three conceded. Why should we worry when the team is third in La Liga and Kylian Mbappé has opened his goal counter in La Liga and the Champions League? Because in football, the feeling is sometimes as important as the result, and to understand that, you have to have watched the matches of the White House.

Victories, but…

It all started against Atalanta Bergamo, therefore, in the middle of August for a duel against the Italians, a duel that looked like a welcome meeting for Kylian Mbappé, scorer and winner of his first title in Spain. A match in which it is difficult to draw real lessons, which is not the case for the first day of La Liga. On the pitch in Mallorca, Carlo Ancelotti’s men, who could count on the “galactic” attacking quartet Bellingham – Vinicius – Mbappé – Rodrygo, conceded an unexpected draw, like a premise of a start to the season that was already not so simple. Apart from the result, it is the impression left by the Madrilenians that raises questions.

A first match to forget that we can put down to Mbappé’s debut in La Liga. But to see him really be decisive, we will have to wait a little longer. A 3-0 victory against Valladolid far from being as obvious as the score suggests (1-0 thanks to a free kick from Valverde, then goals scored in the 88th and 96th, with great chances to come back to 1-1 for Valladolid), then a draw against Las Palmas where he had a bad match, like his team. Fortunately for him, the counter was unlocked against Real Betis (double), then Real Sociedad and therefore, Stuttgart, in C1.

A transfer window that leaves something to be desired

However, we feel a greater fragility than in recent seasons. On the defensive side, the quartet lined up by Carlo Ancelotti continues to evolve, particularly because of the many injuries in a sector that was clearly poorly managed in the transfer window. This Real Madrid, with the uncertainty about the return date of David Alaba, had to recruit, it did not do so. Which pushed Ancelotti to line up Carvajal in the axis at the start of the match yesterday, to change at half-time and shift him to his right wing (taking off Vazquez) and bring on Militão. A physical problem for the Brazilian or Rüdiger would then have been a disaster. Fortunately, Thibaut Courtois multiplies the big matches to mask the obvious fragility of the back base.

The White House, always looking to the future, has not accustomed us to this, and is now crossing its fingers to avoid having to push Aurélien Tchouaméni back again or innovate with Carvajal in the center. In addition, the post-Toni Kroos era seems complicated to manage, the German’s mastery of tempo in complicated moments is sorely lacking. Yesterday, it was the almost forty-year-old Luka Modric who had to come off the bench to deliver his team with a decisive corner. And when we see the very average performances of Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni, we can also wonder. But all of this is erased, once again, by the attacking stars who pass the baton to play the heroes. Yesterday, the Rodrygo-Mbappé duo took care of this. How long can this last? The Merengues decided to pull out all the stops to welcome the Frenchman and put him in better conditions, while leaving egos aside, like Vinicius giving him a penalty, or Bellingham celebrating his first goal from the stands in an exuberant manner.

Beware of the first skid

For the moment, everything is going well, even if a first exit from Rodrygo has left some doubts about this facade agreement. Multiplying players with strong characters is necessarily risky, and even if Carlo Ancelotti is a master in the matter, he is not immune to seeing the machine jam if the results no longer follow, while the manner leaves something to be desired for the moment. But this can also be seen as a positive point. The margin for improvement of this team is immense, and in all sectors. The sequence of matches in the coming weeks with this new formula of the C1 can be as much a springboard towards a new great season as a trap that would close on a team unable to find the solutions. This year more than ever, the Italian technician will have to find keys so that this meeting of stars is not like the previous galactics.