Hazard enters the equation

Hazard is confirming his positive trend in recent training sessions. He has been working with the group, at the same pace as his teammates, since before the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Liverpool. That puts him very close to returning to the pitch after his last muscle injury, the umpteenth of the season. And it also places Zidane in a very difficult situation, because, to give the Belgian entry into the starting eleven, he will have to make a very difficult decision: remove Asensio or Vinicius from the team, the two fittest men, along with Benzema, in the last month of competition (and architects of the streak of 12 games without losing, ten wins and two draws). Even Valverde, a surprise starter at the Clásico and then in his own right at Anfield, is affected by the situation.

Vinicius returned to the showcase in the game against Liverpool, where he scored a double, becoming the second youngest Madrid player to score in a Champions League tie (20 years and 268 days). “Let people from outside speak, I keep working,” said the Brazilian humbly after the meeting. To celebrate each of his goals he kissed the shield and, gesturing, he wanted to say “I'm staying here”, in clear reference to the information that linked him to the Mbappé operation. In the Classic he was also one of the best of the game, causing the foul that led to Kroos 2-0 and being a real danger in the first half. However, at Anfield he went unnoticed in a game with little possession.

For his part, Asensio is in the sweetest moment since, at the end of last season, he returned to play after knee surgery. He has scored in four of the last games he has played, two of them in the Champions League (Atalanta and Liverpool in the first leg) and he has already scored six goals this season. For Madrid, he continues to be a strategic player even though his market value has fallen to 35 million when, in 2018, it reached 90 million. In the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, he scored ten and eleven goals respectively. More is still expected of him. In the Classic he lost his place for Valverde and at Anfield he was very tied in defense.

The return of Hazard, which is just around the corner, will force Zidane to make decisions. Very probably unfair, since the one who has the most ballots to fall from the eleven is Vinicius, since the Belgian likes to start from the left wing, the only one where the Brazilian can act with solvency. When Hazard has played this season as a starter (only eight games), he has shared a trident with Benzema and Asensio six times and twice with the Frenchman and Lucas Vázquez… But none with Vinicius. The Belgian will return soon, it seems that more as a destabilizing factor than as a solution.