After having already experienced three failures in this exercise since the start of the season, Real Madrid will review its strategy regarding penalties. Carlo Ancelotti will decide for himself.
We had to wait until the new year for Carlo Ancelotti to take charge. After letting his players establish a hierarchy among themselves for penalties, the “Mister” has obviously decided to review his plans. “We missed three penalties (this season) and that bothers me. I have to take responsibility for choosing who should take them,” he announced Friday after Real Madrid's stunning victory in Valencia (2-1), in a late match of the 12th day of La Liga.
Three shooters since the start of the season
A match marked in particular by Jude Bellingham's missed penalty at the start of the second half, when the score was 1-0 for the locals. After a foul on Kylian Mbappé, it was the England international who grabbed the ball, with the agreement of his partners, before finding the amount of Stole Dimitrievski.
“Bellingham didn't procrastinate after his penalty, I think that gave him extra motivation. He played the last 30 minutes like only he can. He made an extraordinary effort, he worked hard and helped Mbappé in front”, supported Ancelotti, relieved to have seen Bellingham make amends by scoring, at the end of the suspense, the goal of Madrid's victory.
However, this new failure will therefore lead to a change of strategy. It remains to be seen who will be his number 1 choice. This season, there are three of them who have tried their luck in the exercise: Bellingham, therefore, who had succeeded in one before the Valencia episode, but also Vinicius, who is on a 100% success in four attempts, and Mbappé, who has already scored three times on penalties in the league before experiencing two big misses against Liverpool and Bilbao.
