The difference in the way Real Madrid’s forwards occupied space in the two matches against Atalanta and Mallorca was notable. In Son Moix, no one moved much to the right wing, leaving this area to Valverde and Carvajal.

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While internet memes are not the best way to make regular comparisons, after Mallorca 1-1 Real Madrid, some of the observations were almost correct. Los Blancos focused too much on the left wing in aʄtack and left the right almost empty, although it was still open for Valverde and Carvajal.

Real Madrid’s four forwards (Vinicius, Mbappe, Rodrygo and a slightly deeper Bellingham) focused mainly on the left side of the aʄtack, which reduced the fluidity and created overlap against Mallorca’s resilient defense.

The positioning of Real Madrid’s forwards was clearly different from the previous match against Atalanta in the European Super Cup. In that match, Rodrygo (as shown in the heatmaps provided to Marca by Opta) appeared more on the right wing, leaving the remaining attacking areas fairly evenly divided between Vini (on the left) and Mbappe (more centrally). Against Mallorca, Rodrygo played mostly on the left, an area where he scored, but that goal was not enough to seal the win.

While Rodrygo’s issues are notable, Bellingham’s is even more striking. Jude was Real Madrid’s best player in Warsaw, in a match where he truly played like a complete player: the Englishman appeared close to the centre-backs, dictated the tempo from midfield and was involved on both flanks when attacking.

Although Belingham was mainly operating on the left flank, which created the conditions for Mbappe’s second goal of the game, Jude also appeared on the right flank, an area he was absent from against Mallorca.