Mbappé's absence, Endrick's role and Bellingham vs. Gallagher: Madrid face derby test

And so they come full circle. Real Madrid have gone 39 league games without defeat, more than an entire season’s worth of games. They have not been beaten in the league in almost exactly a year: not since Sept. 24, 2023. That was against Atlético Madrid. They have not been beaten in any competitive game since Jan. 18, 2024, 34 games ago — and, yes, that was against Atlético, too.

That night Atlético knocked Madrid out of the Copa del Rey, 4-2 after extra time. When they met in the league a fortnight later, the culmination of a capital city trilogy of three games in three competitions and three weeks, it finished 1-1. Rayo Vallecano and Real Betis, with two draws, were the only teams not beaten by Real Madrid last season, but Atlético are the only team to have defeated Real Madrid all season.

Ultimately, it might not have mattered much — Madrid still won the league, the Champions League and the Super Cup, defeating Atlético 5-3, and despite eliminating them Atlético didn’t go on to win the cup. Only the derby always matters. With Barcelona already four points ahead of Madrid and six points ahead of Atlético especially.

Ahead of Sunday’s clash between the two teams, here are the major questions facing Real Madrid. (Stream LIVE: Sunday, 2:50 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

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Carlo Ancelotti, Diego Simeone and the dream

Real Madrid manager Ancelotti knows what this game is like. He has played it more times than any other and faced the man in black on the other bench more times than any other too, an admiration toward his adversary. Simeone was there the first time he took charge of a Madrid derby, and he may well be there the last time he does, too.

When Ancelotti left Real Madrid the first time, he had played a Champions League final against Atlético and won it: a Sergio Ramos goal on 92:48 took their 10th European Cup after more than a decade-long wait, maybe even the trophy that has most obsessed them in their entire history. And yet that season Ancelotti had also seen his neighbours win a league title. The following season his team went to the Calderon and conceded four. No one, his staff said, was more horrible to play.

So imagine how he felt when he came back six years and five Real Madrid coaches later (Rafa Benítez, Zinedine Zidane, Julen Lopetegui, Santi Solari and Zidane again) and Simeone was still there. Pretty pleased, actually. On the eve of the first derby of his second spell, he said that doing what Simeone had done was a dream: “God willing, I’d be here 14 years like he has been at Atlético,” he said. He knew that wasn’t possible, but then he said this wasn’t possible either: this week, Ancelotti reached his 300th game in charge of Real Madrid. “I’m not saying it’s a miracle, but almost,” he said.

How does Mbappé’s absence impact the formation?

Just when it was starting to go right, too. There were 10 minutes left on Real Madrid’s 3-2 win against Alavés on Tuesday night — although it was 3-0 at the time — when Kylian Mbappé looked toward the bench and gestured for a change. A wag of the finger, a little rotation and he was gone. As he headed off, applauded by the Bernabeu, Ancelotti asked what was wrong and he pointed at his thigh.

“He had a little bit of a strain and he asked to be taken off to avoid problems,” Ancelotti said. And that, everyone thought, was that. The following day, though, it was confirmed that Mbappé was injured. Not badly enough to miss the Clásico in a month’s time — at least they hope not — but badly enough to have to sit this one out. And Lille, and Villarreal, and France‘s next get-together.

The timing is a pity. For all the doubts and the debate — and it genuinely was true that he was a difficult fit, Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo all liking to occupy similar spaces to the left of the attack — the Frenchman had started to come good. Very good.

It’s also, by the way, a sign of just how decisive he is that he was racking up the goals even when he didn’t seem to be playing that well. It is true that there were penalties in there — a duty he shares with Vinícius — but he had scored in five consecutive games and already had seven goals in nine Real Madrid games, increasingly well adapted to a more central position, even if his most explosive moments still came when he went out to the wing and then whizzed back in again. He had also played 783 of 810 minutes. Now, though, he has to stop.

While the front three were starting to find their feet, at least when it comes to attacking, there has still been a sense of imbalance in the Real Madrid team so far this season. Not just in terms of this being a team that leant to the left. At times, certainly to begin with, it felt almost like two blocks: the defenders and the deep midfielder, Aurélien Tchouaméni, at one end and the forwards plus an attacking midfielder at the other. And in the middle, Federico Valverde filling a giant hole. Lucky, then, that Valverde is the man with the giant lungs and the admirably small ego, a player you can rely on to be almost everywhere and everything.

That issue has been remedied a little, particularly with Jude Bellingham back from injury and evolving into more of an all-round midfielder than the No. 10 with responsibility to arrive in the opposition’s area, his physical qualities allowing him to do some of what Valverde does. There has been a greater sense of Vinícius and especially Rodrygo being aware of their defensive duties, too. But a recurring theme remains Real Madrid’s difficulty in pulling together those parts of the pitch, narrowing spaces, and building moves. While Ancelotti insisted that you can’t build and be direct at the same time, and he prefers the latter — he later called it rock-and-roll football, a line that everyone latched on to hungrily — but in the bigger games, some still anticipate Real Madrid adding a midfielder.

Against a team like Atlético who fill that space and who in the opening derby of last season found it all too easy to bypass Madrid’s midfield on either side, that might be an even more attractive proposition. That could mean Vinícius and Rodrygo up front, Bellingham and Valverde either side of Tchouameni and Modric. Another option would be Valverde, Tchouaméni and Luka Modric in a three with Bellingham at the top of that diamond. And there’s something else too: Eduardo Camavinga might, just, be fit at last.

Arise, Sir Bellingham? Arise, Sir Gallagher?

For the first time ever, there’s an Englishman on either side of the Madrid derby with Bellingham representing the LaLiga champions and Conor Gallagher playing his first season for Los Colchoneros. The man who was the signing of last season against the man they’re already declaring the signing of this, scorer of two goals for Atlético so far. Who is your money on?

Is it Endrick’s time to shine?

If Ancelotti does decide to leave three men in the forward line, the question is who? Arda Güler — whose international coach says plays even better on the right of a front three — would offer an option of a player inclined a little more to the midfield and to combinations. And then there’s Endrick, the Brazilian teenager who the coach says has to be patient, but who doesn’t seem to be in the mood for waiting; he certainly isn’t about to waste time.

“He’s got balls,” Ancelotti said last week. “He showed courage — twice.” Aged 18, Endrick got married and then two days later came on and scored for Real Madrid on his Champions League against VfB Stuttgart. He probably shouldn’t have shot at all. “We’d have killed him if it hadn’t gone in,” goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois said — but he’s something, that’s for sure. In 47 minutes he has two goals and an assist.

Endrick in the Champions League #UCL pic.twitter.com/APBqFBtsS2

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) September 18, 2024

Carvajal is competitiveness embodied

The little town of Boadilla del Monte, nine miles or so west of Madrid, has a Spanish National Team Avenue, an Iker Casillas Street and a Vicente del Bosque Road. So why not add another one, says the mayor Javier Úbeda? There is, Úbeda reckons, an obvious candidate: Dani Carvajal is not the only footballer who lives there — a handful of Real Madrid teammates do and so too do some of the Atlético Madrid players he will come up against on Sunday, which could be handy if he needs a lift home after the game — but he is the only one who is a candidate to win the Ballon d’Or.

“He deserves the Ballon d’Or more than anyone,” said Joselu, but then he would say that: he’s Carvajal’s brother-in-law and his neighbour.

Carvajal’s case is a strong one, though. A European champion for club and country, he scored the opening goal in the Champions League final for Real Madrid against Dortmund, taking him to six — six! — European Cups, as many as anyone else ever. His dad, a policeman approaching retirement, was part of the force flanking the team, sat atop a white horse as the they celebrated at the fountain of Cibeles in the centre of the city. It was also his dinked penalty that took Spain to the UEFA Nations League title a little over year ago. This summer was Carvajal’s first European Championship, despite being 32, because injury ruled him out of the previous two. Spain had three leaders: Rodri, a footballing, tactical leader. Álvaro Morata, an emotional leader. And Carvajal, competitiveness embodied.

Born in Leganes, the kid who laid the first stone at the club’s Valdebebas training ground, the only Madrileno in the Real Madrid team, likely to be one of only two on the pitch with Koke — although Rodrigo Riquelme and Pablo Barrios were also born in the capital — and the only player, with Koke, left who played in both Champions League finals between the teams, he knows what the derby means better than anyone. What it needs, too. And yes, that sometimes is a touch of nastiness. Think about it and he might also be the most Simeone of the Madrid players.