Real Madrid’s 4-0 defeat to Barcelona has led to some soul-searching at the Santiago Bernabeu and there are several shortcomings in the team that need to be addressed.
In La Liga, Madrid trail their arch-rivals Barcelona by six points. They are eight points worse off in both La Liga and the Champions League than they were at this stage last season.
Most worryingly, they have scored the same number of goals as then (29) but conceded four more than the 11 they had let in at this time last year. The club expected more from their attack after Kylian Mbappe joined Vinicius Junior in the capital, but it’s the defence that has become a key point of concern.
Nowhere was that more obvious than in the Clasico, where the starting centre-back partnership of Eder Militao and Antonio Rudiger was completely split apart by one Marc Casado pass for Robert Lewandowski’s first effort.
Both could only look on as the unmarked Polish striker then headed Barca into a 2-0 lead.
Militao and Rudiger are Madrid’s only two senior centre-backs apart from Jesus Vallejo, who isn’t in Carlo Ancelotti’s plans. And, for once, general manager Jose Angel Sanchez and Ancelotti are in agreement that signings must be made in January. The last time they brought anyone in at that time was in 2019, with Brazilian midfielder Reinier joining from Flamengo for €30million (£25.1m; $32.5m).
So, what options are there in the squad in the short term, who are they targeting and will they sign anyone mid-season? As always, everything depends on president Florentino Perez…
Madrid’s defensive weaknesses stem from a summer in which they did not get their way in the transfer market.
Los Blancos failed to sign Leny Yoro from Lille, who went to Manchester United for an initial €62million instead, with promising centre-back Rafa Marin sold to Napoli and captain Nacho choosing not to renew and move to Al Qadsiah in the Saudi Pro League.
Madrid chose not to sign anyone in his place. Then, in August, academy prospect Joan Martinez suffered a serious knee injury after going on tour with the first team and looking as if he might make the permanent step up to Ancelotti’s squad. Jacobo Ramon, another highly rated centre-back in the club’s reserve team, is also struggling with a string of muscular injuries.
To make matters worse, right-back Dani Carvajal — who had filled in at centre-back — suffered a season-ending knee injury at the start of October. That has left Ancelotti with only one right-back in Lucas Vazquez (we’ve written about their pursuit of Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold among other targets in that position).
But it is at centre-back where Madrid have real problems. Militao was out for almost eight months last season with a serious knee injury and has missed the first two international breaks this season with muscular problems.
Rudiger is the only other elite centre-back available, as David Alaba’s return from his knee injury last December continues to be pushed back. The idea is to try to gradually phase him back into training this December.
There are concerns among Ancelotti’s staff that Militao loses focus on the pitch but they acknowledge that both he and Rudiger are tired. And there are few alternatives. The Germany defender even agreed not to be called up for his national team in September to recover after an intense start of the season.
One option in the squad is Aurelien Tchouameni, the midfielder who has played 12 games at centre-back since joining Madrid in 2022. But the Frenchman has said publicly and privately that he prefers to play in his natural position — and he too is struggling with problems in his left foot after several injuries there.
Making a January signing seems to be the obvious solution, but it’s not so simple in practice and the board have yet to make any serious moves. Here’s who they’ve been considering in central defence…
Vitor Reis (18 years old, Palmeiras)
Reis is a young prospect who is highly rated by Madrid and has played for Brazil’s youth teams and has a release clause of €100million. Palmeiras don’t plan on selling Reis until after the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, which runs from June to July next year.
Scouts consider him to have a similar profile to Paris Saint-Germain’s Marquinhos or even Madrid centre-back Militao, which is a positive and suggests he could fit in well with how Madrid play.
He has played 17 games (15 as a starter) for the Palmeiras first team, scoring two goals. He is also captain of the Brazil Under-17 team which won the South American Championship for that age group in 2023.
In the summer, he extended his contract with Palmeiras until 2028.
Castello Lukeba (21 years old, RB Leipzig)
Madrid have compiled positive reports on Lukeba, the French defender who renewed his deal with RB Leipzig last week.
That renewal lowered his release clause to €90million and changed parts of his previous contract to make it easier for all parties for him to leave the club in the summer — but not in the January window.
After impressing with Lyon, Lukeba joined Leipzig in summer 2023. Despite interest from several European sides, Lukeba’s plan was to take an intermediate step to further develop his potential before another big move. That seems inevitable in the summer and he is already attracting interest from Premier League clubs.
He made his debut for France in October 2023 and was a silver medallist at the Paris Olympics last summer as one of Thierry Henry’s regulars. He is very fast, likes to compete in one-v-ones and provides a good outlet with the ball, thanks to his composure and touch.
Another thing that makes him attractive to clubs is that he is left-footed — a profile that Madrid are particularly interested in while they wait to see how Alaba returns from injury.
Aymeric Laporte (30 years old, Al Nassr)
Plenty of people at Madrid, including those on the board and Ancelotti, are fans of Laporte, and his name has been mentioned in the past month.
Laporte joined the Saudi side Al Nassr in 2023 from Manchester City for €27.5million, on a contract until 2026, but the defender has expressed in public — in an interview with AS — and in private that he is not as comfortable as he had imagined he would be in Saudi Arabia.
Madrid are yet to make a move, though. There were internal discussions at Madrid about the possibility of signing Laporte in the summer, but it was seen as financially complicated and they did not push for him. A move at that time would also have resulted in big financial implications for the player.
Madrid would never match his net salary at Al Nassr, which is understood to be up to €24million a year according to club sources speaking on condition of anonymity to protect their job, as it would not be in line with the club’s wage structure. Even if he had agreed to reduce it, there would have been huge tax repercussions in him moving to Spain in the summer because he had spent so long away from Saudi Arabia in the first half of the year. He would also have had to pay a high tax in Spain on his earnings from the first half of the year in Saudi Arabia. If he were to move at the start of 2025, then he would not be taxed in Spain on previous months’ earnings.
There are some other stumbling blocks though. Al Nassr paid €27.5million for Laporte and it is understood they would want to recoup most if not all of that should he leave before his contract expires. Also, as Laporte is 30, he would only be offered a short-term contract by Madrid, as is their general policy. That makes the club a less attractive proposal for him.
Laporte would be able to deliver immediately in Madrid, and offer experience and left-side cover, but for any move to happen Madrid would need to meet Al Nassr’s demands and he would need to lower his financial expectations considerably.
Jonathan Tah (28 years old, Bayer Leverkusen)
There have been rumours linking Madrid with the Bayer Leverkusen and Germany centre-back.
Tah fits in with the club’s transfer policy, as his contract expires in June and he would be one of these market opportunities they are always on the lookout for at the Santiago Bernabeu.
However, Madrid have not made a move for him at this point. Given he is highly rated by the Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick, with whom Tah also shares an agent (Pini Zahavi, who is also close to the Barcelona president Joan Laporta), then the Catalan club might be a more likely destination.
(Photos: Getty Images)
