Real Madrid return to league football today on Saturday after a fortnight-long break because of the September international break. The Merengues have a difficult opponent waiting for them in La Liga, i.e., Imanol Alguacil’s Real Sociedad.
This La Reale side is one of the most challenging teams in La Liga, but, beyond the quality of their opponents, Carlo Ancelotti will have other difficulties facing him in this match.
One of these problems will be the absences in the midfield, as the Italian tactician has up to four midfielders unavailable for this match, including Aurelien Tchouameni, Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga, and Dani Ceballos.
Valverde is almost guaranteed to start this match, and Modric is also very likely to once again start this game with the midfield options quite thin. But the third midfield position is up for grabs between Arda Guler and Brahim Diaz.
As MARCA has reported, Ancelotti himself admitted that he has some doubts about which player to start in this third midfield spot as he spoke to the media ahead of the game:
“That’s the doubt I have. Good question. It might be that the system changes as well. In the last match, I played with three midfielders and it didn’t work out, so now the question is whether to change the system or adapt one of these players who aren’t so used to playing with three midfielders.”
Thus, Ancelotti can go into this game either with a 4-3-3 formation, in which one of these players will play as an inside midfielder, or a 4-2-3-1 formation, with a playmaker playing behind Kylian Mbappe. 4-4-2 is another option for the Real Madrid manager, but he would have to sacrifice one of his forwards if he picks this formation.
Both Guler and Brahim shone with their respective national teams in the last international break, and thus Ancelotti has a very difficult decision on his hands. But it is a good problem to have nonetheless, and there are few managers better than Ancelotti to get the best out of all the players available to him.
