What changes will the departure of Toni Kroos mean for the team? Carlo Ancelotti was asked the day the German said goodbye to the Bernabéu. “This is a good question. Let’s see, let’s see…”, the Italian started. “On an environmental level, those who are here have to take more responsibilities. And on a technical level, phew… (pause) You have to see it, you have to see it. We can think that it will be a more vertical style with players who have much more energy, but less playing time,” outlined the Madrid coach, aware of the complexity of the matter.
There is no area of the field where the transition has been cooked more slowly in the white team. The veterans have been gradually leaving or losing prominence, while the young people have been arriving and acquiring more weight in a gradual manner. Casemiro left in 2022, Modric lost his permanent position in the autumn of 2023 and Kroos self-retired in 2024. In parallel, Camavinga signed in 2021 for 31 million, Valverde reached the eleven in the spring of ’22, Tchouameni cost 80 million in the summer of 2022 and Jude Bellingham arrived in 2023 in exchange for 103 million more up to 30% in variables.
The four represent the club’s commitment to this generational replacement of the midfield, a more physical quartet than their predecessors. In Lille they met for the first time this year (not in their career), and their enormous difficulties in producing football in any way symbolized Madrid’s problems in chewing the game or giving birth to another model under the direction of Ancelotti in this new life. without Kroos.
The fiasco in France confirmed the stagnation of the white core. Whether with three or four pieces, the creative result in these first two months has tended to be equally flat, except for some flashes from Bellingham and waiting to see what impact Camavinga, injured until now, can have. If he has not been able to run, a lane that almost everyone denies him, he has often been doomed to a slow deployment, without a clear director and lacking intensity until emergencies have forced him. Of his 22 goals scored, only three have been achieved in the first half.
The warning in Las Palmas
After 11 games, the most basic statistic already registers the offensive hole in the wide zone. While last season the three players who created the most chances were three midfielders (Kroos, Bellingham and Modric), this season there are two forwards and the oldest midfielder (Vinicius, Modric and Rodrygo). And the same thing happens with the shortlist that makes the most passes in the final third: from Valverde, Kroos and Bellingham, Valverde, Vinicius and Rodrygo have been skipped. Again, two attackers, according to Opta, and the orphanhood of the retired German, who from time to time continues to go to the sports city. “There is also the risk that Carlo will tell me: ‘Now stay,’” he joked a few days ago in a podcast with tennis player Alexander Zverev.
The new scenario puts under the magnifying glass the contribution of the young midfielders, who have gone from being Kroos’ gregarious partners (especially Tchouameni, Camavinga and Valverde) to receiving a more leading role in the creation, and also Carletto’s work with them in Valdebebas. The Italian already tested with the same four from Lille at the beginning of last year: they were the starters in the preseason classic in the United States, in the league premiere in San Mamés and in Vigo, in accordance with the club’s intention to accelerate the transition generational in the core. Kroos and Modric often started in the backroom, until the coach quickly and successfully concluded that the German was his best piece to build the attack. The one sacrificed, when everyone was there, was Camavinga.
After seven weeks of competition, the offensive production problems in the midfield are repeated and the Italian coach’s analysis is cloned. “We are not fast in circulation, the ball reaches the forwards when the opponent is closed,” he commented on August 29 in Las Palmas (1-1). “We have forwards who need a more vertical game than normal. If you get to them slowly it is a problem,” he said in Lille after an evening of very slow pace. The commitment to introducing a fourth half in the last two games has helped them avoid defensive imbalances, their big complaint at the beginning of the season, but it has not contributed anything to the generation of danger.
Ancelotti’s recognition
In the absence of confirming the role of the returned Camavinga, to date Tchouameni, Valverde and Bellingham have been permanent. Modric is a regular replacement and even Ceballos has had his window, but none of them have solved the riddle. On the bench, the finest foot he has left is Arda Güler, Lille’s final agitator, and with the conditions – according to Ancelotti – to drop a height and play as an interior player, although he has barely explored that option. The Turk does not finish coming out of the background, either as a playmaker or in the center. In France, without Mbappé or Rodrygo in the eleven, the chosen one was the fiery Endrick.
This Tuesday, Carletto acknowledged for the first time in public that the midfield issue was getting stuck. “The truth is that we are not finding who can replace Kroos. We must adapt to the absence. We have no idea who can replace him because he is irreplaceable. We have to find another way to play and we will find it. At the moment, we have not shown our full potential,” he admitted a day before it became clear that Madrid has a hole in the creation of football.
MOHAMMED BADRA (EFE)
Despite the express recovery of Kylian Mbappé, the forward was not called up with the French team for the new international break. “I spoke with Kylian, who has another game (tomorrow with Villarreal) with questions because he has a problem that is not serious, but that requires care for him to recover well. “I’m not here to take risks,” Didier Deschamps commented this Thursday after offering the list that does not include Ferland Mendy, but Tchouameni and Camavinga.
The new white star played the last 40 minutes of the match in Lille this Wednesday. Madrid had announced last Wednesday that he would be out for about three weeks due to an injury to the femoral biceps in his left leg, but on Tuesday he was included by surprise in the squad for the Champions League match and ended up playing almost the entire second half. On the other hand, Madrid reported that it has Militão and Rodrygo for tomorrow. Both had suffered discomfort.
