Next Thursday night, Real Madrid will play Deportivo Alaves at the Mendizorrotza. They will want to go into the mid-season break with a win.

At the moment, Los Blancos are two points behind Girona, who is currently in first place in the league. The gap could grow to five points, though, as Girona plays Real Betis earlier on Thursday.

Real Madrid will need to win so that they don’t fall further behind in the race for the title or even take advantage if Girona loses to Betis and drops points.

But Carlo Ancelotti and his team will be limited at Vitoria because many of their usual first-team players are hurt.

David Alaba and Ferland Mendy have recently joined Arda Guler, Eduardo Camavinga, Vinicius Jr., Eder Militao, and Thibaut Courtois in not being able to play. Dani Carvajal has also not healed enough to return.

On top of that, Joselu wasn’t able to train today because he was sick, but he is traveling with the team and could play against Alaves. Here’s how Ancelotti could set up his Real Madrid team for tomorrow night since so many players are out.

Manager Carlo Ancelotti already said at the press conference before the game that Kepa Arrizabalaga, not Andriy Lunin, will start in goal against Alaves. Lunin started against Villarreal over the weekend.

There will be a few changes to the defensive unit because leader Nacho Fernandez has to start instead of David Alaba and will play with Antonio Rudiger in the middle of the Merengues’ defense.

At the same time, Fran Garcia will take over at left-back after Ferland Mendy got hurt again. Lucas Vazquez will continue to play for the guests on the right side of the back line.

Even though Aurelien Tchouameni is fully fit again, Ancelotti may decide to keep him on the bench in case there are any more problems at center-back.

That’s why Real Madrid is expected to start with Federico Valverde and Toni Kroos, who have been great together lately. Luka Modric and Jude Bellingham will play in the wide middle of the pitch, where they will try to constantly drift in.

The attack combo between Brahim Diaz and Rodrygo Goes has been pretty good for Real Madrid. They scored a goal together against Villarreal over the weekend. Because of this, Ancelotti probably won’t change anything that is working well for his team.

Kepa, Vazquez, Rudiger, Nacho, Garcia, Modric, Valverde, Kroos, Bellingham, Brahim, and Rodrygo are the players that Real Madrid thinks will start.

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At some point in the second half, Aurelien Tchouameni will have to come on to help out one of the central midfielders or even play center-back because Real Madrid doesn’t have many choices there.

At the same time, Dani Ceballos and Nico Paz, who just graduated from the school and has been impressing at every chance he has had so far, could get minutes. If Joselu is healthy enough, he should also join the game. No matter what, young Gonzalo Garcia might show up.