3 things we learnt from Real Madrid’s comfortable 3-0 win over Mallorca

Ancelotti’s rotation policy may end up ruining Real Madrid’s chances of more silverware

I didn’t think I’d have to write about this after this game, if I’m being honest. Ancelotti actually surprised me, in a good way. He made a couple of changes to the starting XI, resting Luka Modric and Dani Carvajal, while opting to go for Rodrygo Goes instead of Marco Asensio, who has been horrible in big games as of late.

But, even then, the game ended with Real Madrid’s staff being worried about the three players that were injured during it. Two of those injuries, as reports say, are muscular. The other one – which was on Rodrygo – fine, it was just a really bad tackle. But the other two are on Ancelotti, are they not?

Karim Benzema has played a lot of football since Ronaldo left Real Madrid. Of course, since he was going to become the main guy, he would’ve had to play a little more, which is fine. But Ancelotti didn’t even rest him against small teams. Real Madrid do need the back-ups to play well when something like this happens, but how can you expect them to play well if they’re not even in the rhythm? They’re not even playing, so to put Jovic or Bale in place of Benzema and hoping they’d play as well as they can without getting any minutes prior, it’s just not going to work.

It is true that Jovic hasn’t played well, but Benzema is still human, and Real have to give their fringe players some chances if they want to up their market value or their level of production.

The same goes with Ferland Mendy as well. Mendy didn’t have a good game, and yes, Marcelo isn’t really good enough to be a back-up for him anymore (to be fair, Marcelo was actually alright against Mallorca. His cross to Benzema was vintage Marcelo, and he was fine defensively as well) But there is one player who has shown time and time again that he’s good enough to at least challenge Mendy for a starting spot, yet he doesn’t even get picked for games.

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Miguel Gutierrez had a fantastic game for Castilla on the weekend, getting three assists, and he has been playing incredibly well, but Ancelotti needs to give him a bigger role than what he currently has. Look at what happened when Santiago Solari gave Sergio Reguilon a big role. Reguilon became a more-than-usable option at left-back and had a few really, really good performances in big games. Why can’t Miguel do the same? He definitely has the ability. Ancelotti needs to trust his own bench or else this would lead him to his downfall yet again.