MADRID, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid kick off their new season with a visit to play Celta Vigo on Saturday with press and fans alike wondering if pre-season woes will be carried over into the new campaign.
Despite out-spending everyone in Spain this summer (and with more arrivals perhaps still to come), Real Madrid's pre-season was a big disappointment as they won just two of their warm-up games while losing twice to Bayern Munich, going down against Tottenham and suffering a 7-3 humiliation against Atletico Madrid.
The fact this disappointing summer came after the failures of last season has raised doubts over whether Zinedine Zidane can repeat the success of his first spell in charge and the coach didn't make life easy for himself by switching from a flat back for to a back five for their last warm-up game against Roma.
The fact Zidane should change system so close to the start of the new season implies he still doesn't know either his best system or best starting 11 and given that Madrid shipped 15 goals in pre-season implies he had better work that out soon.
Thibaut Courtois will start in goal, but Dani Carvajal's place at right back depends on the Spanish Football Federation giving an amnesty to all of the players who ended last season by completing a cycle of bookings to earn a one-game ban.
Meanwhile Sergio Ramos and Rafael Varene will probably play in central defense with Marcelo at left back as Ferland Mendy recovers from injury.
Casemiro remains vital in central midfield, where Tony Kroos and Luka Modric will probably partner him with Eden Hazard making his league debut in attack alongside Karim Benzema and possibly Vinicius Jr.
There is also a question over whether Gareth Bale will travel after Zidane has made it clear he doesn't want the Welshman, but with the English and Chinese markets closed, can the Madrid coach simply ignore such a talented and theoretically decisive player?
Celta go into the new season without Maxi Gomez after the Uruguayan striker moved to Valencia and although Santi Mina moved the other way to replace him, Mina is injured leaving Iago Aspas to once again lead the Celta attack.
Aspas was inspirational as Celta avoided relegation last season, netting 20 goals despite missing a quarter of the season through injury and he will be a constant headache for a Madrid defense that has a lot to prove.
