Real Madrid host Alaves at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday night in a fixture of flipped narratives.
Los Blancos are enjoying a fine run of form lately with Santiago Solari‘s side recording four wins from their last four games and scoring 13 goals.
It’s a complete contrast to Alaves, though, as Abelardo’s men have just one victory from their last four, losing two straight games as their European hopes deteriorate following such an impressive start to the season.
But back in October, the situation for these two sides was decidedly different. Indeed, Alaves notched a fourth straight win by embarrassing Julen Lopetegui on October 6 with a very late 1-0 win and of course the Spanish coach would fail to see the month out before being sacked after a dire run of form.
You can wisely expect an entirely different approach to this game from both teams, and here we examine the main talking points going into the fixture.
GAME TIME OR GOAL TIME?
Gareth Bale.
There are two selection dilemmas for Solari, one good and one bad. We’ll begin with the bad because the Real boss has back problems.
Dani Carvajal and Raphael Varane are both suspended on Sunday which means Alvaro Odriozola will come in at right-back and Nacho fills in for the Frenchman.
The two Sergios – Reguilon and Ramos – occupy the rest of the back four, however, given Solari may well have rotated ahead of an important midweek assignment – more on that later – perhaps that problem is not quite as severe as first appears.
So, moving on and up the pitch, there is a genuine decision to make in attack. Both Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio are back to full fitness and will be pushing for a start alongside Karim Benzema, but that would mean dropping Vinicius Junior.
The issue with that is the Brazilian teenager is yet to legitimately score in La Liga – albeit he was credited with a very ropey deflected goal against Leganes – and although the enterprising 18-year-old has been immensely impressive without padding his stats sheet, he needs goals.
Having ripped Girona to pieces on Thursday, this fixture represents a great opportunity to reward that performance with the opportunity to score. Yet Bale and Asensio need more minutes if they’re to feature against Barcelona.
Game time or goal time, what is your pick Mr Solari?
WHAT ARE THE REAL PRIORITIES?
Dani Ceballos.
This point is largely woven into by the previous one. As you know, Real face Barcelona three times over the next four weeks with the first of these meetings arriving on Wednesday in the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg at Camp Nou.
Now, this presents Solari with plenty to ponder in terms of priorities. Los Blancos headed into the weekend 10 points behind the league leaders with that gap to Barca most likely insurmountable.
That would leave the Copa and Champions League as the two prominent competitions with which to focus upon so naturally Solari should be thinking about rotation.
But can Madridistas contend with such an early surrender when Barca haven’t been at their best in the league of late? It’s a balancing act for the Madrid boss. As mentioned, the defence will be shifted regardless and there’s competition in attack, but what about in midfield? Toni Kroos could give way to Dani Ceballos while Marcos Llorente might join him after a positive display against Girona.
Regardless, the first XI certainly has plenty of intrigue as it will point to Solari’s thinking for the second half of the campaign, especially with this month featuring games against Barca x2, Ajax and Atletico Madrid.
BENZEMA REPLACES RONALDO?
Karim Benzema.
Thibaut Courtois spoke to the media this week and revealed some interesting details about Cristiano Ronaldo.
Well, namely that there isn’t any because the Madrid goalkeeper has said no-one in the dressing room utters the Portuguese’s name.
“He is not being talked about in the locker room,” Courtois said in an interview with Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad. “It is mainly the press that drops his name.”
Obviously Los Blancos have missed their all-time record goalscorer this season, but maybe the reason for such quiet of late is the fantastic form of Benzema.
Vinicius and Benzema are two of the major success stories from Solari’s reign and it’s the boss’ consistent praise of the French forward which has sparked his recent resurgence.
The 31-year-old has plundered five times in his past three games taking his tally for the season to 17.
Intriguingly, Benzema has scored the same amount as Ronaldo in 2018/19 and, as pointed out by AS, has reached the mark more efficiently with 72 shots compared to his former team-mate’s 119.
Take out Ronaldo’s five penalties scored and add in the fact Benzema has recorded one more attempt on goal in the current campaign than the entirety of last season and it appears that, at least for now, the No9 has adequately filled the gap.
