The Pitos del Bernabéu in Cup against Celta, after the review of Barcelona in the Super Cup, also pointed to one of the escape roads of this Madrid: the sides. Lucas Vázquez and Ferland Mendy were reprimanded by a part of the stadium and the canterano remained indicated the following Sunday by a sector after appearing in the photo of Las Palmas. In a team with confessed difficulties to defend well – a collective problem warned a thousand times by Carlo Ancelotti – and with a serious shortage of zagueros, the question of the sides is a wound that continues to bleed in the white set and the decisions made by the coach Italian, especially in the most demanding appointments, is one of the open issues. For example, against Atlético, 10 days after the clash on Wednesday against Brest in Guingamp (21.00, Movistar) in search of a remote classification among the top eight (without vinicius, again sanctioned).
The crack on both flanks is even more evident when you look at what it had and what is at this point of the course: Madrid has gone from the best Dani Carvajal (room in the Voting of the Golden Ball) and Mendy’s bolt, to Mendy, to A very suffering version behind Lucas Vázquez, the French downturn and the enthusiastic deployment of Fran García who does not finish convincing Carletto. Lucas and Mendy, the first options, recovered five balls last season and in this they have dropped to 3.3. The Gallic, a hard guy like the cement to which it was almost impossible to haggle, this course is dried 1.3 times by encounter, when in the previous one it was only exceeded 0.5.
The gap does not escape the numbers or mere observation, and neither from the analysis of the rivals, which rule out there, especially for the right of the canterano, whose environment assumes the difficulties of the moment and appeals to its mental and competitive strength. This campaign, the band that defends Lucas Vázquez in front of a growing threat: 40.1% of the opposite attacks occur there, as he opts, compared to 35.1% of the past. In the left -handed, it has declined from 39.1% to 35.2%.
Possible alternatives are not simple and could affect other parts of the field. On the left, at least, Ancelotti has two formation sides (Mendy and Fran García), which are turning in search of a solution that is not consolidated, while the third way of Camavinga does not disappear in the bedroom.
Militão option also broke
In the right hand, however, the matter is more complex and also serves as an example of other holes and misfortunes of this Madrid: the precariousness of pieces due to the injuries, the insistence of the club not to go to the market at any price and the So far absence of solutions in the categories lower in the eyes of the coach. Input, in the costume of the first team there is not now another right side pure Beyond Lucas Vázquez (33 years), converted five years ago from the extreme and faces an unpublished horizon in his career for the charge of minutes. When Carvajal broke his right knee, option B was militão, but he also split the crusader (again). Since then, the most common resource has been Fede Valverde, although Ancelotti came to say a few weeks ago that he would not use it there again. Uruguayan’s option alters the center of the field. The reality, however, has pushed him to return it to that corner when he has believed it necessary, and with massage included: “It is difficult to find a right side like him,” he said before going to Valladolid, where he handled Raúl Asencio, Another of the roads that Carletto cited in the past and that did not take place until Saturday after a few days of physical discomfort by Lucas Vázquez.
The signing window closes on Monday, February 3 and, except for a great turn, no one is expected to relieve the crack beyond what David can contribute after 13 months of recovery. For summer, if the right side Trent Alexander-Arnold continues without renewing with Liverpool a contract that ends in June, it would be a possible hiring.
Courtois: “It’s a job of 11”
Meanwhile, what there is is what is already on the eve of the course between its decisive phase. Lucas, to which this campaign almost triple (1.3 times per game, in front of 0.5 in the past), continues to flight to his attacker vocation with two goals and four assists, a production superior to his colleagues in his colleagues in The left: Fran García (three goal passes) and Mendy (to zero). However, the problem of Gallic, defined a year ago by Ancelotti as “the best defensive left side of the world”, is not the attack, but its diminishing performance in defense. Interestingly, its two best seasons have coincided with the last two Champions of Madrid.
His contract, like Lucas, ends this summer. With the Frenchman, there is “good harmony” to prolong it, according to the club, although “there is nothing closed.” The Spanish environment naturally assumes that until the end of the season may not resolve its future, following the routines of the house.
Madrid has taken height in attack on Rebufo by Kylian Mbappé, but he remains to refine in defense. Collective – ”is a job of 11, also of the strikers,” recalled Thibaut Courtois on Tuesday – and in matters as particular as the sides, whose solution could affect other areas of the field.
