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.
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