Real Madrid Line Up Versus Mallorca: Ancelotti Changes Tactics

Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti should field an identical starting line up to that which won the UEFA
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Super Cup when his team makes it La Liga debut against Mallorca on Sunday, though there will be a tactical change.

At a prematch press conference ahead of the away fixture in Son Moix, Ancelotti said that Madrid starts the new 2024/2025 season “with all the enthusiasm to keep the title we deservedly won” last term.

“Mallorca is always complicated. We don’t know how many competitions we are going to play, there are two that are not clear,” he added, in a nod to the Intercontinental Cup and the Club World Cup. “What is clear is that we are all going to compete”.

Perhaps playing more than 70 games, Madrid is expected to contest seven competitions this campaign and has already ticked one trophy off by beating Europa League winners Atalanta 2-0 in a Warsaw-held UEFA Super Cup final on Wednesday.

The Italians were the better side in the first half and had hard luck not taking the lead. In the second 45 minutes, though, Ancelotti’s men woke up with the likes of Vinicius Jr., Jude Bellingham, Rodrygo and Kylian Mbappe all showing their class and combining to some extent for both strikes that made their manager the joint most successful in club history.

Unsurprisingly, Ancelotti won’t make any changes for the trip to Mallorca as per personnel. Elsewhere, however, he’ll switch from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-1-2-3.

This means that as opposed to being a lone striker, number 9 Mbappe will be the central target man flanked by Vinicius to his left and Rodrygo to his right.

Ancelotti confirmed that Bellingham’s new retracted role won’t change, but deeper still than him is lone pivot Aurelien Tchouameni.

The Englishman partners the man who netted the opener at Atalanta’s expense, while set up by Vinicius, in Fede Valverde.

On the back line, Thibaut Courtois’ goal is protected by Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger and Ferland Mendy.

Real Madrid Starting XI Versus Mallorca: Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Rudiger, Mendy; Tchouameni; Valverde, Bellingham; Rodrygo, Mbappe, Vinicius