Some notes after a rather uneventful game.

Real Madrid beat Mallorca 1-0 and continued their unbeaten run in La Liga, thanks to a long-range effort from Aurelien Tchouameni in a very uneventful contest.

Here are three short notes from the game.

Aurelien Tchouameni had one of his best games in a Real Madrid shirt

Tchouameni was, simply put, immense. Everyone was talking about this, but I genuinely thought it was one of his best performances for Los Blancos, period. The way he asserted himself in the game was so good. He was involved in a lot of chances, was dominant on the ball and obviously scored the winning goal in an all-round performance.

Tchouaméni has had an awesome game. Definitely deserves that goal. All-round performance from him today.
— Hridyam (@hridarora22) April 13, 2024

Defensively, Tchouameni imposed himself in a committed, and yet composed manner, which resulted in an almost flawless game from the Frenchman — a display of his incredible maturity and high footballing IQ as he continues to become one of my favorite players in the squad. I am so, so impressed by him.

His ball carrying was also something I was particularly impressed by; it was very important to have a player like him run with the ball into the opposition half at a time when Real Madrid’s players weren’t too mobile — more on that later.

All in all, Tchouameni was brilliant, and the stats speak for themselves:

Really thought Tchouameni was great vs Mallorca. One of his best performances of the season, showed a few aspects of his game he hasn't shown a lot this season.

Some stats from today:

2 key passes
8/10 duels won
2/2 tackles
5 clearances
7 recoveries

Incredible stuff. pic.twitter.com/kEMyEdesla
— Managing Madrid (@managingmadrid) April 13, 2024

It was amazing to see Tchouameni play as a pivot once more, and it’s a shame that Real Madrid won’t have this at the Etihad on Wednesday, because he sure looks fired up at the minute.

Militao probably won’t start vs Manchester City, and it is understandable why

Going into the game, it was expected that Eder Militao would make his first start for Real Madrid in eight months, but ultimately, Nacho Fernandez and Antonio Rudiger made up the centre-back partnership. Had Militao started this game, and played a good chunk of minutes, we would’ve probably seen him play vs City as well. But, he has played a combined total of six minutes since his return from the ACL injury. Putting him in such an intense atmosphere with no reps leading up to it might be a long shot, even for Carlo Ancelotti.

“It’s a thought that we have in our heads, of course, but if I see a player well, I don’t think about the minutes he has spent or the time he accumulates off the pitch,” said Ancelotti before the Mallorca game. But even then, this injury was too big for him to risk playing Militao in such an atmosphere. I think he’ll sit it out, just for the sake of his career.

Real Madrid, at least in the first half, had a different approach to their buildup play

Lastly, some tactical notes:

Real Madrid’s lack of off-ball movement forced them to do things they usually don’t do too much of in their build-up play. We didn’t see a lot of movement from Joselu and Brahim Diaz. Not having Rodrygo Goes and Vinicius Jr as outlets also hurt the team in the build-up, which forced players like Tchouameni, Fede Valverde, Jude Bellingham and sometimes Luka Modric to drive with the ball. In the first few minutes, it was obvious that something about the build-up was off, and they had to shift a few things around.

Tchouameni and Bellingham started going on drives with the ball — one of those resulted in a Bellingham shot that hit the crossbar. Valverde also had a big hand in all this, constantly going at Mallorca’s defense and opening up space for his teammates by attracting the opposition defenders towards him. Brahim had a very good chance in a similar fashion that should’ve gone in.

It was important to note that this is something Real Madrid might do a bit more of once Toni Kroos inevitably retires — a lot of progressive carries and fewer progressive passes. I am definitely reading too much into this, but trust me, the game wasn’t all that eventful.

Onto Manchester City round two.