Real Madrid's leaky defense is in danger of undermining Carlo Ancelotti's trophy bid as injuries again pile up

It's worth noting, first, that this isn't just about having bad centre-backs, or some sort of glaring deficiency - although there are plenty of those. Football teams, these days, don't operate as a series of individuals. The best ones attack and defend as a team - with all 11 players involved at any given time. It is why, for example, Atletico Madrid tend to be so good defensively, while PSG's Mbappe-Neymar-Messi iteration was so bad.

This all relies not only on effort, but also balance. It's a complex thing, that varies from club to club. Some press high, others drop deep. Most clubs will change over the course of a game, or vary their structure based on the opponent. The main problem for Madrid, right now, is there's no default setting. They loosely shift into a 4-4-2 when they don't have the ball but there are gaps to be found. The players don't move in tandem. Some press right away, others hesitate. Some, such as Mbappe, don't seem to know what they're supposed to do. The result is chaos, with gaps to be found everywhere - especially in transition. It's why Barca so comfortably cut them up in a 4-0 Clasico win last month.

Everything about Madrid this season will somehow link back to Mbappe. That is, of course, the risk they ran in signing him to a massive contract as a free agent. Madrid may be the biggest brand of a football club in the world, but Mbappe, the individual, will generate more clicks, and spur more analysis. When he does good things, Madrid will be praised. When he does bad things, they will be condemned.

Unfortunately for Los Blancos, the good and bad have come in equal measure this season. It has long been a criticism of Mbappe that his off-the-ball work is insufficient. And for a long time, he has been so good of a finisher, creator and playmaker that it didn't really matter. At PSG, for example, he could effectively stroll through a season, get punished for his lack of work rate in the Champions League, and then point to his 40-plus goal campaign as evidence of his greatness.

And fair enough. He is a generational talent. But when teams set up to beat you, there's no real hiding place. And Mbappe looks fairly clueless out there. There are basics entirely missing. He doesn't know when to close down his man, or when to drop. He can't seem to decide which passing lanes to cut out. And when Los Blancos are struggling, running back towards their own goal, Mbappe looks thoroughly unbothered. Luis Enrique, his former head coach at PSG, called all of this almost a year ago, crying out for Mbappe to help out in defensive areas.

"I read that you liked Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan would grab his team-mates by the balls and defend like a madman. You have to set that example first as a person and as a player. You're a phenomenon, a world-class player. Not a doubt. But that's not enough for me. A true leader is someone who, when you can't help us with goals, because the other day you had two high-level players against you, you help us in everything that matters," he was filmed telling Mbappe before a Champions League tie with Barcelona.

Safe to say, Mbappe didn't listen.

But Mbappe isn't the only party at fault here. Vinicius, too, can be a reluctant runner. Although he does possess a bit more tactical nous - and knows exactly howto defend under Ancelotti. More broadly, though, this is an issue of numbers. Madrid tend to play in some variation of a 4-4-2 diamond or a 4-3-3. Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni tend to be locked in for the centre midfield spots, with Jude Bellingham as either an attacking midfielder or false nine.

The solution to combating that - as teams have found - is to pack the midfield. It's what Barcelona did, altering their system slightly to effectively outnumber Los Blancos on the break. It's how Milan scored two of their three at the Bernabeu, and Lille bagged one of theirs in a shock Champions League win. It is worth noting, at this point, that none of these goals were scored by midfielders; it was either a winger or a striker putting the ball in the net. But it's a question of destabilisation. Get the ball into the middle, where you outnumber an opponent, shuffle the ball forward on the break, and then your real attacking threats can go to work. It's why Lucas Vazquez was at the mercy of Rafael Leao, or Ferland Mendy undone by Lamine Yamal. Find the gaps, exploit the space, and get it to the players that can change a game. Against Madrid, it can all be laughably easy.

In these situations, continuity is vital. When things are going wrong, it is invaluable for Ancelotti to be able to turn to the same group of players, and work with known quantities every week. In fact, if he had a consistent back four and midfield, some of these problems might be remarkably fixable. The issue is, injuries have hit Los Blancos hard.

At the start of the season, the back four seemed sorted, with Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger and Ferland Mendy making up one of the more formidable units in Europe. Throw in David Alaba - on the mend from an ACL tear - as a backup, and this was a very good group. Of course, things haven't worked out that way. Carvajal suffered a severe knee injury a couple of months into the season, which will rule him out for the year. Militao, too, tore his ACL in early November.

Injuries elsewhere haven't been kind, either. Eduardo Camavinga tweaked his knee. Tchouameni sprained an ankle. Lucas Vazquez pulled a muscle. Even Thibaut Courtois has dealt with knocks. Piece it all together, and Ancelotti has to figure out how to rebuild with half of his back four out, and no consistency in central midfield.

Of course, there are individuals to blame at times. Often, at the highest level, some defenders can be so good that team-wide mistakes can be accounted for.

Last year, for example, Rudiger fit that bill. Need to shut down the opposition's best centre-forward? He did just that when tasked with dealing with Erling Haaland. This season, he hasn't quite been so impressive. He was charged with handling Robert Lewandowski in El Clasico, and the Polish striker scored twice. He failed to keep Alvaro Morata quiet against Milan, too. Defensive stats can be misleading, but he is winning a lower percentage of his challenges, according toFBRef.

In other cases, the issues are more glaringly obvious. Vazquez, before he got hurt, was a clear defensive weakness. A converted winger - with failing legs - it was far too easy for teams to exploit him in one-on-ones. Leao had a field day against him, and it's fair to imagine that other clubs will follow suit once he returns. On the other side, Mendy has been well off his usual assured self, and looks vulnerable in one-on-one situations. There are admittedly overzealous calls for Tchouameni to be sold, but his defensive lapses have become more frequent. Perhaps only Bellingham, who seems to be trying to play three positions at once, can claim to have done his job as an individual.

It was widely assumed, before the season started, that when all of these superstars arrived, Ancelotti could be the man to fix it all. There was good reason for that. The Italian is a brilliant man manager, and has very few problems tweaking and adjusting. He made Madrid's attack even better, for example, after losing Karim Benzema, replacing him with Bellingham - not a striker - and getting 25 goals out of the Englishman. Over the years, he has coached some of the biggest names in football, and made it work every time.

But it might be the right moment for a big swing here. Were they to lose to Leganes, it would be bad, and another at Anfield midweek could see Madrid in danger of falling out of the revamped Champions League at the group phase. The most obvious solution, perhaps, is to change systems, and ask one of his big-name forwards to do something entirely new. He has already flirted with benching Rodrygo. That might have to be a full-time endeavour now.

But perhaps the gutsiest move would be sitting the guy on the bench who really deserves to be there: Mbappe. He is Madrid's biggest defensive frailty at the front. Taking him out, reverting to last year's system, and trusting that the same unit - minus Toni Kroos - can figure it all out, is a shrewd, low-risk solution. Whichever way it happens, though, Madrid need to change. Their defence simply has to be fixed, or they could see their season crumble.