Isco and Marcelo, of minimum services against a 'depre' Getafe

Zidane has spent months believing it long, defending against the harassment of the press that all his players would end being necessary when the reality is that he did not depart from his personal guard game after game. That uncertain forecast is today an inevitable fact: Madrid come to the game with Getafe with thirteen qualified first-team players (Castillistas Chust, Miguel Gutiérrez, Marvin, Arribas and Blanco are summoned), two of them goalkeepers. The part is terrifying: eight casualties due to injury (Odriozola, Carvajal, Ramos, Militao, Valverde, Hazard, Lucas Vázquez and Rodrygo), a sanctioned (Kroos) and two escaped by a fit of impatience (Odegaard and Jovic). So Isco and Marcelo emerge from the bottom of the closet, long out of orbit (follow the game live on AS.com).

Isco's has been an unstoppable decline. A crucial player in Ancelotti's second campaign and Zidane's first, he has rolled down the slope technical after technical. In the ranking of minutes played he is 18th in the squad, the same position as last year. In the previous one he finished 19th. And he has not stepped on the National Team for more than a year and a half. In total, five different technicians have sidelined him in this period, including Zidane, who made him play in the first eleven games of his second stage without returning him to his splendor.

Mendy, right

This season is more shore than ever. He has only started three times in the League, the last three months ago, in the Valencia reverse (4-1), and in the Champions League he played only 13 minutes in the Kiev disaster against Shakhtar. At 28 he cannot let too many trains go and today one of the last passes. The circumstances lead him to play as the third midfielder, which is not his best position, but there is no choice. In them you can see Marcelo, who already played 23 minutes against Huesca due to Odriozola's injury. The chain of mishaps will force Mendy to pass to the right. He has already done it twice in the course (against the Huesca in the first leg and in the return, curiously) and once last year (against Eibar).

Nacho will cover the absence of Ramos and Asensio and Vinicius will form a trio with Benzema. Cup by cup, they have already been in 26 games this year. Only Courtois, Modric, Varane and Kroos surpass them. Now his journey is different. The Balearic Islands are moving up and the Brazilian, who has not scored a goal since October 21. What already cost him, now costs him more.

A Getafe without a goal

Getafe is also in the group of depressed. The four preceding years with Bordalás painted pink: promotion, two eighth places and one fifth. He is now thirteenth, is relegated to four points and has only won two of the last eight games. There is no apparent reason for this. He has kept the nuclear players from previous campaigns (except Jorge Molina) and has signed well in summer (Cucho, Unal …) and in winter (Chakla, Aleñá and Kubo), but he missed the goal. He has scored 17, less than any other team in the category, and that record portrays their misfortunes. Angel has kept the type, but the rest have lost gunpowder.

Today recovers a pillar, Arambarri, served his sanction, and loses another, Djené, expelled in Seville for his brutal entry to Ocampos. Neither will be Bordalás, that he saw the red one because of his hitch with Lopetegui after the Argentine's injury. The coach rebelled yesterday against the stigma of a violent team that persecutes Getafe, although the truth is that no one commits more fouls in the championship. The coach is also haunted by bad arithmetic against the greats: He has never beaten Madrid or Atlético. Neither has Madrid done well for Getafe in recent times. It's been more than eight years since their last victory and they have lost 19 of the last 21 games, but it is true that the white team has never been found so precarious.