Waiting for the outcome of the soap opera Kylian Mbappé, Real Madrid kicks off the season with an unforeseen blow, the serious injury to Thibaut Courtois, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in training yesterday in Valdebebas. The Belgian goalkeeper will undergo surgery in the next few days and has said goodbye to practically the entire course. Hopefully, he can reappear throughout the month of April. The normal thing is that right now Madrid go to the market to look for a substitute of guarantees.
The injury to Courtois, 31, catches Real Madrid with only one goalkeeper on the squad, Andrei Lunin, 24, a Ukrainian goalkeeper who has not quite convinced despite the opportunities he has had and who has been close to leave Madrid this summer. A few days ago, Madrid sold the third goalkeeper on the squad, Luis López, 21, to Mirandés.
In the middle of the afternoon, the goalkeeper used social networks to send a message to the fans: “You never expect to go through something like this, but now it’s time to accept it and do everything to overcome it and come back even stronger. Thank you all for the energy, love and encouragement, I assure you that they motivate me to recover as soon as possible, ”he wrote on his Instagram account.
The season also begins for Madrid without the footballer who had been their benchmark since Cristiano’s departure in recent years, Karim Benzema who, contrary to the club’s forecasts, did not want to renew and accepted a juicy offer from Arab football. Along with the Frenchman, the player who best hit the ball, Marco Asensio, has also left the entity, as well as others who had become a drag, such as Eden Hazard (the worst signing in the club’s history in terms of price/performance) or Mariano Diaz.
Whatever happens with Mbppé, this season has to be for the whites finally the one of generational change in midfield. The hitherto untouchables Luka Modric and Toni Kroos have to step back and let the team’s game fall to younger people. Madrid’s strong bet is Jude Bellingham, 20, who the whites have bought from Borussia Dortmund for 103 million. The arrival of Bellingham is so important that Carlo Ancelotti can vary the system to adapt it to the characteristics of English. In the preseason games of the North American tour, the Italian sacrificed his usual 4-3-3 formation for a 4-4-2 formation in which Bellingham acted at the tip of the rhombus as a striker.
The experiment worked in the first two games, with victories against AC Milan and Manchester United, but fell apart in the next two, with defeats against Barcelona and Juventus, which raises doubts about its continuity.
Apart from Bellingham, Madrid expects a lot from two other midfielders: Brahim Díaz (recovered after three seasons at AC Milan) and the young Turk Arda Güler, who is already injured and who will have to undergo surgery, with no date for his return to the training.
The preseason has also left doubts about the defensive reliability of the team, which already happened last season whoever played. The left wing is a strain with Ferland Mendy and the hopes are placed on Fran García, a former youth player who has been recalled from Rayo.
In attack, and with a 9 now like Joselu Mato and Rodrygo Goes out of their best position, the whites seem very dependent on Vinícius, a player who monopolizes everything, for better and for worse, with an enormous predisposition to leave the game entangled in their personal battles. In this preseason Vinícius has played less focused on the wing and more on the inside and has not been fine in the auction. Without Benzema and Asensio, Madrid has 40 fewer goals per season.
