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Ancelotti brilliantly explains fielding no Spanish players v Villarreal

Real Madrid via Madrid Xtra

"Fielding no Spanish players last time out was a coincidence, it's a random thing. 

 are a universal team, we can have players from all over the world," 

, Real Madrid played no Spaniards for the first time in their history – 

's minor injury was crucial to making this happen.

Three Frenchmen, two Brazilians, two Germans, one Uruguayan, one Austrian, one Croatian and one Belgian started Saturday's game for Real Madrid. 

 were the only two Spaniards to come on from the bench.

First time in 121 years: one reason why Madrid's lineup v Villarreal was 'historic'

's history. And, for the first time in 121 years, the Merengues fielded a lineup without a single Spaniard in it.

As a reminder, here is what our lineup looked like.

The lineup was composed of 3 Frenchmen, 2 Brazilians, 2 Germans, one Belgian, one Austrian, one Croat and one Uruguayan.

Technically speaking, though, Militao and Valverde do hold Spanish citizenship. However, they were born and raised in Brazil and Uruguay respectively and represent their countries of birth on the international stage.

Real Madrid's weakness in Villarreal loss shown in lineup - it's not only the full-backs

 have suffered their first defeat of 2023 at the hands of 

. The Merengues' defence was all over the place at La Ceramica, and while it's easy to point at 

. If we take a look at how Villarreal's two scoring attacks started, we'll see that in both cases, Tchouameni does a poor job of closing down the spaces in midfield.

 personally instead of gravitating towards the ball. Madrid's compact structure is lost as Tchou doesn't have enough time to cover the exposed area. 

 has to move closer to the wing to receive the ball from Mendy -- that's because our left-back isn't too good on the ball and needs support. A similar thing happened with 

 and Militao on the opposite side throughout the match.

With the two central midfielders dropping to the flanks and Tchouameni playing personally instead of zonally, Madrid often got exposed through the middle. 

However, the full-backs and their poor buildup abilities still remain the core problem. Ancelotti went for two defensive players on the flanks and it backfired.

As with Rudiger, it was more of a poor individual performance than a structural problem. Militao's bad positioning on the flank didn't help either.

So, with all this said, here's a lineup that shows our problems in the Villarreal loss.

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See this Ancelotti he can't change this team to good things because he can't see young player from castilla to renew the team, because he does not appreciate young player so to me he is not a good coach, in this problem of real Madrid Master president as contribute a lot for the team because he spend money to buy players outside he did not appreciate castilla players please give us our castilla coach he is our legand he can change the team

realmadridfanAz Baba

Aronne Borg

The line up is just a coincidence but a historical reference. No more. It has nothing to do with final results. Two Spanish players were in the team when Rayo Vallecano beat us 3-2. Asensio and Carvajal started. Let's discuss how we can improve. We need to bring in a few players from Castilla. Admin should use their influence to send the message to the Madrid Board. The players we are running after for over €100M were given opportunities to blossom, now we want them. Look at Fran Garcia he was the best player in our game against Rayo Vallecano. If Jude Bellingham is in our Castilla, Ancelotti will not give him a first team chance. Enzo Fernandez would have remained obscure if he is in our Castilla. Sergio Arribas can compete with these players if given encouragement. Barcelona is already planning to bring Angel Alarcon from their Infantile A to their first team. Madrid should wake up.

Player		G
Alexander Sørloth	Villarreal	23
Artem Dovbyk	Girona	21
Jude Bellingham	Real Madrid	19
Robert Lewandowski	Barcelona	18
Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	16

Ancelotti brilliantly explains fielding no Spanish players v Villarreal

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