Real Madrid: These are Carlo Ancelotti’s three biggest flaws

Is it Only a Traditional 4-3-3 When Benzema is There?

Throughout the early months of the season, Ancelotti experimented a little with the squad mainly when it came to formations. It was always clear to him and to anyone watching the team that a 4-3-3 is the best way to go when it comes to formations. Depending on the opposition things may be subject to change, which is something we saw under Zidane. This isn’t a comparison of the two managers but rather an observation as to how effective unexpected tweaks to the formation and gameplay could be.

After failed experimenting by the current manager, Ancelotti admitted that there is no other way for this team to play other than a 4-3-3 which is what he will be using for the remainder of the season. That’s a fair point by the manager but now a question comes up of whether that is only the case if Karim Benzema is in the squad?

During the past two matches, Benzema has not been able to play due to injury. With Luka Jovic in the team, everyone expected that the Serbian striker will start. Instead, the manager decided to play Marco Asensio as a false nine against Athletic Bilbao and then do the same with Isco when the team went against Granada. After the game over the weekend, Ancelotti said that he has not played Jovic because the player isn’t at full fitness after recovering from COVID-19 and even though that may be true, it still leaves some questions unanswered.

Why didn’t he come on as a substitute when Real Madrid were struggling against Athletic Bilbao? Why didn’t he come on a little earlier against Granada? These are questions that we probably won’t get answers to from the manager but playing with a false nine truly hurts our chances of finding the back of the net. Add to that the fact that Real Madrid were also missing a very important goalscorer in Vinicius Junior and it becomes clear why a moment of brilliance from Asensio was the eventual difference-maker in the match.

Eden Hazard could have started against Granada but was on the bench. Gareth Bale could have started but was on the bench. Valverde could have started but was on the bench.

Unfortunately, these are things that we will continue to say throughout the rest of the season. No one is expecting Hazard (for example) to be a starter when Vinicius is fully fit and that’s fine. However, he needs to play when the Brazilian can’t and the more he plays, the more confidence and fitness he will get, and therefore he could be a key player off the bench in games where change is required.

In the end, it looks like Ancelotti will be stubborn with certain things and one of them will be his lack of wanting to change things and that could be his own downfall just like it was in 2015. It all works well until it doesn’t and if you cannot find a way back up fast enough and learn from your previous mistakes then you can’t blame the domino effect that comes your way in the end.