With Julen Lopetegui as manager and no Cristiano Ronaldo to start, Real Madrid are entering a whole new era.

It’s been a summer of upheaval after three successive Champions League wins for Los Blancos. They lost their totemic manager, Zinedine Zidane. The Frenchman retired soon after the season was gone, and Cristiano Ronaldo finally made good on his long-standing threat to leave Spain if not pampered enough, jetting off to Turin and Juventus where he can be treated with the kind of worship he demands.

This leaves Madrid’s future, with a coach that they took from the national team on the eve of the World Cup, look less than rock solid. Which is strange because this is Real Madrid we’re talking about. Yes, there have been some changes, but victory is in this club’s DNA and so many of the players are amazing (Luka Modric won the World Cup golden ball, indicating life after Cristiano need not be bleak) and Julen Lopetegui is an incredibly good coach, too.

Obviously there is transfer business still to be conducted, but how would Real Madrid line-up this season based on the squad they currently have at their disposal? We’ve had a look and come up with four main options.

Preparing The Future

Madrid used to be the big dogs in the transfer market, but they have since been usurped by many other sides – losing out on many high-profile players to rivals, or in one case a fax machine. With Cristiano Ronaldo gone, however, Los Blancos will feel they need to secure one or two high-profile targets to ensue they remain at the forefront of everyone’s minds – but what if they don’t?

Sure they bagged World Cup golden gloves winner Thibaut Courtois. The tall keeper has been trying to get back to the city of Madrid (where he spent three brilliant seasons playing for Atlético) for a couple of years now and he finally made it on deadline day, but that was for a small fee and done with little fanfare.

So Courtois comes in, replacing the unfortunate Keylor Navas (who has done little wrong, he’s just not a literal and figurative giant) and the rest of the team is mostly as it was last season. Except you rest the 33 year-old Luka Modric, draft Isco into midfield and in his place on the left you put the brilliant Brazilian Vinicius Jr. – and in attack you bring in another youngster in Marco Asensio. The young wing-forward has been the toast of Madrid’s pre-season so far and Lopetegui has remarked on his ability to play as a false nine. He and Vinicius would add serious cut a thrust to a fluid front three featuring the Welsh wonder Gareth Bale.

The Lopetegui Special

One of the reasons to be most excited about Real Madrid this coming season isn’t the youngsters or the Spaniards (although if you are excited for that, your feelings are legitimate) but the fact that for the first time in forever, Real Madrid have a true tactician in charge. In fact, the last time a Real Madrid coach was both tactically competent and attack-minded was Manuel Pellegrini back in 2010. Since then it’s either been defensive tacticians (José Mourinho and Rafa Benitez) or tactics-lite man-managers (Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane).

One of Lopetegui’s great moves as Spain coach was using a 3-3-3-1 system to lay siege to defensive opponents and pull their defence apart. For Madrid Courtois would obviously keep goal whilst a three-man back-line would be anchored by Raphael Varane, this would allow Nacho to be a stable partner on the left whilst Sergio Ramos returns to his right-back roots and drives forward to help launch attacks.

At the base of midfield, Luka Modric replaces Casemiro. The thing with this formation is it can leave you open to the counter-attack, and whilst Casemiro makes great chasedown blocks and tackles the point of this system is to keep the opponent penned back. So using the genius of Luka Modric to anchor things and sweep up counter-attacks to stop them before they begin will be key.

Ahead of him Toni Kroos will be free to play passes galore, spraying out balls to team-mates like an enthusiastic cheerleader with a t-shirt cannon. Next to him, Casemiro. Pushed further forward so his tackling can help with Madrid’s high-press and his shooting from range can help provide a goal threat.

Out wide we have Gareth Bale and Marcelo. Two of Madrid’s best wide creators pushed high and wide, these two will own the flank in their opponent’s half and provide the kind of penetrating width that is key to breaking down defensively obstinate sides. Between those two wingers, Isco takes up a free role to drift wherever he needs to, providing overloads and creating havoc; dovetailing with Karim Benzema who will play a selfless target-man role, engaging opposing defenders and making sure his team-mates have space to work with.

The true beauty of this shape is Madrid can change to it at will, without needing to make a substitution. The team could simply shift from their standard 4-3-3 line-up into this one, allowing Los Blancos to catch opponents by surprise and overpower them.