For Karim, Madrid trembles

It has been almost eight months since Madrid have played a game without Benzema, whose absences terrify. For its performance (98 goals since Cristiano left, just over three years ago) and because of the lack of alternatives. Benzema spent six years dedicated entirely to Madrid due to his exclusion from the French team. Partly thanks to it, since 2018 he has only missed thirteen games, eleven of them due to injury and two due to rest, but now Deschamps considers him key and the overexertion, mixed with his almost 34 years, they invite Ancelotti to dose him. Since August it adds 18 games and more of 1,500 minutes and the Italian has decided to save the trip to Elche without injury involved (follow the game live on AS.com).

It’s time to Jovic, invisible footballer since his signing. He played in his first year, was loaned out in the second to Eintracht and returned without appreciable improvement. He has only scored two goals with Madrid, the last in February 2020. Ancelotti has given it six times (86 minutes in total), but it has never been a starter. To this aim today unless the Italian looks for a less orthodox solution (Asensio, Hazard …). The alternative of Mariano it seems impossible: He has not even made his debut with the Italian on the bench.

Modric to the rescue

In return Modric returns. It has been more than six years since Casemiro returned from his year of erasmus in Porto to form a trio with the Croatian and Kroos. Since then the Madrid has signed James, Kovacic, Odegaard, Ceballos, Valverde and Camavinga and has released Medrán, Llorente, Mascarell, Torró and Óscar Rodríguez. Neither with the portfolio nor with the quarry has he found relief from the shortlist. So the return of Modric, absent on Wednesday against Osasuna, deserves Ancelotti’s toast. There is no footballer who bleaches Madrid’s game more. In Martínez Valero, then, the best possible team will finish because Levante, Espanyol, Osasuna and Sheriff have already shown Madrid that they have very little left over. Nothing that did not happen before to Zidane, that already paid the bill of a waning bench: Marcelo, Hazard or Bale have plummeted, Asensio is a yes but no, Isco is missing and Valverde is injured. So a long template in theory goes with what is put into practice.

In reality, all positions have an owner except the one on the far right. Bale, Hazard, Asensio and Rodrygo have passed through there, and incidentally, Lucas Vázquez and Valverde. And from the casting, by half a length, Rodrygo wins, still in training but with better prospects than the rest.

Boyé, in the shop window

Elche does not have much to celebrate either. He is two points above relegation, he comes from adding a point of nine against three teams in his League and the level of criticism to Fran Scribe has risen in volume. Today he will surpass Otto Bumbel as Elche coach with the most matches in First (it will be his 105th game), but he begins to generate mistrust in the property.

In his first stage, he promoted the team with a points record in the first round and kept it for two years, although in the second he was relegated for financial reasons. He came back in February of last year and saved him against prognosis Now Bragarnik has put seven Argentines in the dressing room and not all of them fit into the eleven. Marcone, who has not played since September, and Benedetto, a regular substitute, are the most conflictive cases. In addition, the trend has spread that the team is hogging too much. Today he will put his eleven gala, perhaps with Lucas Pérez in a band and Boyé on point. Curious is the case of the Argentine, who did not catch on neither in River, nor in Newells, nor in Torino, nor in Celta, nor in AEK, nor in Reading, but who is an idol in Elche. Admirer of Falcao and author of eight goals last season, Elche’s options go through him and the 23,000 fans who will put a lot of trouble on a Madrid that has not lost with the French-green since the time of Trobbiani, in 1978.