Premier League: Declan Rice, Guardiola’s most expensive setback
Real Madrid is in a complicated situation that could worsen next Thursday, if Villarreal is really happy to beat Carlo Ancelotti’s men again as they did in LaLiga with their 2-1 victory at the Ceremica. That’s why everyone is starting to wonder about the depth of the bench of the White House, at a time when Carlo Ancelotti whose position is already in ballotage still does not intend to recruit in January to strengthen while everyone else does.
Indeed, Carlo Ancelotti, who still does not want to recruit this winter, has one of the shortest staffs of recent years at Real Madrid. The Italian coach has 23 first team players, plus Luis Lopez, who assumes the role of third goalkeeper every day. This means he has the least populated locker room since the 2018-19 season. But despite the low population, the role of a handful of players is inconsequential, as they are neither in the good nor in the bad times.
These are Odriozola, Vallejo, Hazard and Mariano, leaving the team with 19 players, now diminished by injuries to Alaba, Lucas Vázquez and Tchouameni. Against Barcelona, despite the debacle, the coach did not use the five changes. The four, the two goalkeepers and the local player Mario Martín remained on the bench throughout the game. But the most significant case is the Belgian Eden Hazard. The Belgian who played his last game in LaLiga since September 11 and watched the whole Supercup from the bench. He has only 297 minutes, one eighth (12.5%) of those possible.
Benzema’s injury in Glasgow seemed to be the turning point for the resurgent Hazard, which had been announced, but the rest of his discreet performances and the great performance of Rodrygo have quickly dashed the hopes. Since then, he has participated in only three games: starting against Shakhtar in Warsaw (57′) and against Cacereño in the cup (68′) and the last 14 minutes in Leipzig. Even the Belgian national team was not a balm, as the Red Devils fell at the first hurdle, with Hazard coming on as a substitute in the third game, after which he announced his retirement from the national team.
To him are added other even more extreme situations. Mariano, reluctant to leave for another season and who ends his contract in June, has been relegated to the rank of yet another center forward. He has 25 minutes (1.055% of possible) spread over five games. Vallejo appeared in two games: 56 minutes spread between the last group stage game against Celtic when everything was played (17′) and against Cacereño in the Copa (39′) when Odriozola was injured. The latter only played the 51 minutes. And now with a squad of 16 players, Ancelotti still does not count on them, but still refuses to recruit. So everyone is questioning the wisdom of his decision.
