The total number of injuries and days of Real Madrid defenders exceeded 2,000 in three years. An Shuai has tried 27 sets of defense combinations this season

May 1: Rudiger, Mendy and Alaba's successive retreat marked the complete collapse of Real Madrid's defense line. According to statistics from Marca, in the past three seasons, the defenders of the White Army have suffered 55 injuries in total, and the number of days missing has exceeded the 2,000-day mark. This once impregnable city wall is now shaking under the continuous impact of the injury wave, and Ancelotti has to rack his brains to deal with this unprecedented defense crisis.

Open the shocking list of injuries: Alaba was missing for 520 days after seven injuries, Militon 6 times/444 days, Carvajal 8 times/294 days, Mendy 9 times/348 days, Rudiger 6 times/122 days, Vazquez 7 times/104 days, Vallejo 5 times/94 days, Nacho 3 times/33 days, Fran Garcia 1 time/9 days, and Odriosola 3 times/43 days. Since the 22-23 season, six people on the Real Madrid back line have been injured for more than 100 days.

This gives An Shuai only 16 opportunities to line up the ideal four defenders in the past three years: 6 combinations of Cavajal Rudiger Militon Mendy were collected in 57 games this season. The combination made 0 appearances last season, and the combination of Kavajal Militon Alaba Mendy appeared 10 times in the 22-23 season.

With Rudiger, Mendy and Alaba entering the infirmary collectively, Fran Garcia became the only healthy real defender in the first team. At the beginning of the season, the four starting players in the European Super Cup (Cavajal, Rudigi, Militon, Mendy) all had high-level free cards. Vasquez was a guest player, Vallejo was abandoned for seven months, and Asensio was still under the compilation of Castia. Under the multiple blows of Nacho's departure, Yoro's failure to transfer, Juan Martinez, a youth training treasure, and Alaba's return delay, Real Madrid's only six genuine defenders (Cavajal, Rudiger, Militon, Mendy, Fran Garcia, Vallejo) in August lost more than half by November.

Faced with such a dilemma, An Shuai has tried 27 different defense combinations this season, of which 17 have been used only once. The right-back position has appeared six faces (Cavajal, Vazquez, Valverde, Asensio, Lorenzo Aguado), the left-back has tried four people (Mendi, Fran, Camavenga, Alaba), and the center back has nine rotations (Rudig, Militon, Alaba, Asensio, Chuameni, Carvajal, Vallejo, Jakovo Ramon, Diego Aguado). At the extreme, Real Madrid even lined up a central defender consisting of two midfielders (Valverde + Camavenga), B team teenagers Asensio and Rudiger - such a stretched arrangement of troops is a spectacle in European football.