One of the biggest transfer sagas of the 21st century has finally come to an end earlier this year, but as of July 1st, Kylian Mbappé is officially a Real Madrid player. After having snubbed Los Blancos a couple of times on some previous occasions, causing strong dislike in a part of the Real Madrid fanbase, he decided to join them at last, coming on a free transfer from PSG.
Given that Real Madrid are the reigning champions both in Spain and in Europe, finding a place for Mbappé in such a star-studded team will be quite a challenge. But if there’s ever been a coach that mastered leading groups filled with big names, stars and egos, it’s Carlo Ancelotti. Here at Sofascore, we tried to put ourselves in the shoes of the Italian tactician, just for a short while, and tried to see how the French superstar could fit in.
Option A
Even though Kylian Mbappé spent the most of his time both with Paris Saint-Germain and France on the left wing, that position will probably remain reserved for Real Madrid’s current main attacking threat, Vinícius Júnior. That, however, is not a reason to worry since Mbappé has also spent a lot of time playing as the central point of the attack and should have no major problem to adapting to the same role in Madrid.
There are some questions about the departures, especially around Rodrygo who might be looking to make the move to the Premier League as he wasn’t too happy with te playing time he’s been getting lately. Should he stay, though, a 4-2-3-1 lineup with Vinícius, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo playing behind Kylian Mbappé seems to be the best way to use Real Madrid’s full attacking potential.
Option B
Should Rodrygo leave, a sensible move would be to just keep the same system and use Mbappé in the same role. A 4-3-1-2 formation in which the wide forwards act more as wingers as they spread wide to leave space for Jude Bellingham to fill. It’s a tactical approach that worked brilliantly last season, getting the maximum out of both Vinícius and Bellingham.
But, if a thing works one season, there’s no guarantee it’ll work the next season as well. Mbappé hasn’t really played with a partner up front and might take time to adapt to the new formation, especially if he’ll be starting on the right side of that duo. Such a set up would probably require the full-backs to join the attack, and that could further limit Mbappé’s influence in the wide zones of the pitch.
Option C
Option C features pretty much the same personnel as Option A, but also explores a different formation – the more traditional 4-3-3 with Aurélien Tchouaméni as the holding midfielder with Jude Bellingham and Federico Valverde alongside him.
The front three is scary on paper and could be even scarier on the pitch – the pace and the quality they have both with the ball in tight areas and in open space is enough to cause trouble for any defence in the world in a matter of seconds. And while the Option A in this text could be used to rely on counter-attacking, which will most certainly be Madrid’s go to approach in the big Champions League games, Option C might be a better fit for games in which they are expected to dominate proceedings, play on the front foot and stay on the opponent’s half, as it has players filling more crucial areas up the field. That should be the case in most of their LaLiga matches.
Conclusion
The choice of formation is a secondary element for Real Madrid’s success with Kylian Mbappé. A bigger and much more complicated task ahead of Ancelotti is creating the chemistry between his biggest stars, the newcomer Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Vinícius Júnior. Three of the brightest stars of the new generation, three young lions hungry for the spotlight. We’ve seen such trios work perfectly together, but we’ve also seen them fall apart spectacularly.
If Ancelotti is able to keep everyone in his dressing room happy and enjoying football, players of such level and class should click together on the pitch and link up without a problem. Given his proven record of managing to do that over the years, we shouldn’t be surprised if we see Carletto lifting trophy after trophy in 2025.