Instead of taking advantage of Girona's previous draw by winning, Real Madrid instead played a draw against Atletico and even though they only got one point, Real Madrid still topped the standings with a difference of 2 points from Girona. It should have been a 4 point difference if they had won against Atletico but Marcos Llorrente's goal denied them the victory that was in sight. Real Madrid repeatedly had opportunities but their finishing was far from expected.
Apart from that, Ancelotti's selection of players in the second half was also poor and instead of adding attacking type players, Ancelotti seemed to just want to play it safe with that slight advantage. Ancelotti should have included Vinicius instead of Dani Ceballos. The result was that with minimal defenders, Real Madrid conceded in the final minute because Atletico always attacked attacks through aerial passes and took advantage of the height of their players. Real Madrid had to accept this draw because with the limited options in defense they at least did not lose to Atletico.
A very painful result for Real Madrid because they had to draw after Atletico Madrid managed to equalize in extra time. However, I can understand this result, because these two clubs are strong clubs, and in the last two meetings, they also beat each other, so this result is not that surprising to me.
But I agree with you about the transition of substitutions, why doesn't Ancelotti try to add to their goals rather than trying to keep the score. Because winning by 1 goal would be very risky for them, because the opponent could also equalize the score with 1 goal, and sure enough that happened in the final minutes. I think Real Madrid in this match was very quickly satisfied, so the satisfaction they felt in such a rushed time meant that in the end they had to be satisfied with a draw.
Imagine that Real Madrid put Dani Carvajal as a center back because Rudiger was injured in the previous match and that's all because the defender option wasn't available until now. I mean, Tchouameni is absent from serving a yellow card penalty, Militao is rumored to be back at the end of March, Alaba is still injured and Nacho is left as a pure center back, isn't this a very messy situation?
I don't know who is to blame for a situation like this and again, the club management also made a strange decision when this winter they did not borrow a single defender to overcome this. I already know that the defenders are still injured but still believe in the current squad. I can't stop wondering how long Real Madrid will depend on miracles in the midst of this increasingly fierce competition.
I think if Real Madrid played with a complete squad I don't think their concentration would be so broken and in last night's match I also saw the moment when Rodrygo had to go down to the defensive line to block an attack from Atletico. Real Madrid's situation is really chaotic at the moment and in the next match against Girona and this will be one of the determinants of winning the La Liga title this season.