Until news of Thibaut Courtois' devastating knee injury filtered out on Thursday, Real Madrid were pretty much set at 10 positions in their line up heading into the new campaign. This is a packed squad, with arguably too many top-quality midfielders to manage.
But aside from the addition of goalkeeper, there was already one gaping hole in Carlo Ancelotti's squad. The departure of and failure to yet replace Karim Benzema has left Madrid with a problem heading into the 2023-24 season. It has long been presumed that would be solved by the arrival of Kylian Mbappe, but the Paris Saint-Germain star's insistence that he will not move this summer has potentially thrown another spanner into the works.
If we remove their issues at either end of the pitch for now, then Madrid can make a case for the rest of their projected line up to the best in the world, and that's regardless of who wins some of the remaining selection competitions. Aurelien Tchouameni, last summer's big-name signing, could find himself frozen out, while Eduardo Camavinga could once again be asked to play at left-back (despite his open disdain for the position.)
So how should Madrid line up going forward? GOAL takes a look at how it all can fit together...