With relief, almost with surprise, Real Madrid has verified that, at the end of the weeks of national team matches, all of its players have returned healthy, which has not happened lately and they are regretting it. So, Ancelotti faces the last stretch of the year with a calendar full of games and a defense full of patcheswaiting for the injured to recover. For the center of the reartogether with Rüdiger, the solution is Asencio, the center back of the quarry who has already tested himself against Osasuna, who will play in Leganés this Sunday and who will have, next week, at Anfield, the toughest test of his career.
It is a challenge, but also an opportunity that not everyone has. If Asencio does a good job and Real Madrid finishes with an acceptable result in the field of Liverpool, leader of the Premier and leader of the Champions League, Asencio will have multiplied his value and Real Madrid will have one less problem.
In the central position, waiting for Tchouameni, Ancelotti doesn’t have much else to choose from; He also doesn’t have many options for the right side, without Dani Carvajal and, for now, for Sunday, without Lucas Vázquez. When the Galician couldn’t take it anymore against Osasuna, Ancelotti resorted to an emergency solution: Fede Valverde and everything indicates that in the next LaLiga match he will continue betting on the midfielder as a winger, just as, years ago, he did with Camavinga on the opposite side.
Valverde offers Carlo Ancelotti security and hierarchy, although it is likely that the Italian is very aware that what he loses in the midfield is more than what he gains in defense.
He Uruguayan midfielder He scored his team’s first goal against Brazil, which tied the match shortly after. The team that trains Marcelo Bielsa He achieved an agonizing victory against a Colombia that had tied in the 90th minute and achieved a valuable draw against Vinicius and his team.
Thus the rumors about Bielsa and with everything calmer, Valverde’s role is once again highly valued. “He is a very important player for Uruguay, and the goal he scored is important because it gives him a lot of confidence,” said former footballer Diego Forlán. «He had several shots against Brazil, doing something more similar to what he does in the Real Madrid. It is important that he feels more and more comfortable and can have that role that we need him to have so that the team continues to have good performance,” continued the legendary Uruguayan forward.
Valverde is a fundamental piece in the real Madridthe only one that is not missing in all the combinations that Ancelotti has been making in this first stretch of the season. He is the second player, after Rüdigerin minutes and the coach has put him in almost all positions, because he knows that he will not lack the dedication of his player. And when he was young he didn’t like to exert himself at all: “I hated running and training. I thought I had the qualities of Maradona. Why, if I could play forward and was good? It was difficult for me to understand it. I had a coach, Chueco Perdomo, in the Sixth Division, who removed me for not defending. Then I started running more, collaborating,” he told Valdano on Movistar.
Now there are few footballers in Madrid with his sense of solidarity. «I love defending, even if I don’t know how to do it very well, and I love attacking. My satisfaction is hearing a teammate tell me ”Good, Fede” for covering his back or for giving a goal pass. “That is my pride,” he continued.