Real Madrid squad for the 2024/25 season

I wanted to do my squad that I’d have going into the the summer pre season tour. I will try to make this realistic too. With Kroos retiring I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see how our squad is looking.

Goalkeepers-

Courtois, Lunin, Castilla GK ( Lucas Canizares)

Obvivlous Courtois will be the number 1 GK going into next season, Lunin I’d defeintely love to see around as the no.2, he is too good really to be a no.2 so I wouldn’t begrudge him if he wants to move on, as things stand he seems willing to accept a contract extension, and the 3rd choice GK can be the castilla GK. I believe that would be Lucas Canizares although I must confess I’m not too up to date with all things Castilla so I don’t have enough information to know if he will be here next season.

Defenders-

Lucas Vasquez, Carvajal, Rudiger, Militao, Alaba, Rafa Marin, Mendy, Garcia

So I am assuming Nacho won’t be with us this season, I’d be happy for him to stay another year if its what he wants, it wouldn’t affect my decision to bring back Marin, as both Militao and Alaba are unknown for now in terms of reliability for next season, and having a young player who will be happy to be on bench, who can learn and get used to Real Madrid would be a smart decision to make for the club and I think is needed this summer. Otherwise I’m pretty happy with the defense heading into next season. There is an arguement to be made about bringing back Miguel Guiterrez, I’d certainly like to see him during pre season to see what his level his like. Mendy doesn’t have the best injury record, and if he is happy starting the season as a 3rd choice LB, I’d be happy to include Miguel into the squad too.

The only real concern I have is with Rudiger’s partner because so far Militao doesn’t look good enough, I hope we see him fully recovered next season because those 2 could be a great partnership, although both of them seem to prefer to play on the right side of the CB pairing, it is a slight problem I can see. And I’m excited to see how good Marin is too, he could be a suprise for us next season.

Midfield

Modric, Valverde, Camavinga, Tchaoumeni, Ceballos, Bellingham, Nico Paz/ Mario Martin

Unfortunately for the first time in a decade we won’t be going into pre season with Kroos in our team, he will be a huge loss for us, 1 in which we won’t know how bad it will affect us until we start to get into next season, his calmness, leadership, passing ability can’t be replicated by anyone else so we will have to change the way we play, I can envisage a change in formation for next season, back to a 4-3-3 to accommodate Mbappe, this would push Bellingham deeper into the midfield positions, to replace Kroos really on the left side of the 3. Our team would certainly be more athletic in this system, especially if Bellingham is partnered with Camavinga and Valverde, what a powerful engine that would be. Kroos played a lot of minutes in the 2023/24 so this is great news for players like Ceballos who I would imagine is hoping for more minutes next season. I’d also like to have 1 of the academy players integrated into the squad, Nico Paz to me looks more like an attacking midfielder/ second striker type of player, I think he will struggle to get game time in this squad so it might be better he goes out on loan this summer, Martin seems to be more of a deeper, Kroos type of player, but I must confess I don’t know too much about his level, if I remember correctly he had a decent performance in the Copa del rey for us. Midfield is an area RM have done amazingly well in recruitment over the last decade, losing Kroos for most teams would be a huge blow, 1 in which would require them to go out and spend a lot of money trying to look for a replacement, for RM, I don’t think we even need to sign anyone this summer. I trust our midfield enough. I think it is currently our strongest part of the side, although that is with Kroos in it.

Attackers

Vini Jr, Rodrygo, Mbappe, Brahim Diaz, Guler, Joselu, Endrick

Well, what an exciting summer for some people this could be, to finally get the arrival of 1 decent French player. I can’t say I’m too excited about this as of now, I’m not the biggest Mbappe fan, but it doesn’t look like I will have too much control over his signing. I will confess I wasn’t that excited when Cr7 joined back in 2009, and that turned out to be pretty good, so I shouldn’t bitch too much I know. He will improve our attack at least. Overall I’m happy about our attack, I hope Joselu stays another season, he is a great squad member to have and also offers us a different way of playing. I hope Guler gets more minutes next season too. I so far have mixed feelings with this kid, I didn’t initially like his attitude when he was on the pitch, he seemed to complain too much to his teammates, but I am slowly warming to him, he is very young so these types of frustrations can be expected. And I do like the fact he seems to want to stay and fight for his place, not like Odegaard for example. This is a quality Valverde showed, and look where he is now in the team. I just hope Diaz gets enough minutes next season, he is the player I’m most concerned about with Mbappe joining. Endrick I had hoped will get some minutes playing with the Castilla, the way Vini Jr did, but considering he is already playing for Brazil, I can imagine he might see that as problematic. I’m just not sure where his minutes will come from next season.

So that would mean we would have 25 players going into the next season. We have a great mix of youngsters, like Guler 19, Endrick 18, Camavinga 21, players in their prime, Mendy 28, Rudiger 31, Mbappe 25 and senior players Modric 38, Carvajal 32, Joselu 34. We will have a big enough squad to compete for all trophies. I think the only problems I really have with the team is will Brahim Diaz and Endrick get enough game time? If Endrick does get more minutes than I expect him to, will that be at the expense of Joselu? How will Militao and Alaba return next season, what level will they be at? will Lunin be happy to be a no.2 again.

Certainly compared to some teams around the world, these problems aren’t that big and with Carlo in charge, we can only be optimistic heading into next season with this squad.