Kroos has his break

The roulette of rotations, minimal, that Ancelotti is doing, reaches Toni Kroos. The Real Madrid coach practically repeats against Alavés the gala eleven that he brought out on Tuesday against PSG in Paris. The only change is the rest for the German midfielder, who leaves his place in the starting eleven to Fede Valverde.

Kroos had been a starter in the League for the last 17 games without interruption. Since he recovered from the pubalgia that delayed his start to the season, he has been in the starting eleven in all the games that Madrid has played except for the cup opener against Alcoyano. In fact, he is the only madridista who has had minutes in the whites’ last 28 games. Benzema, Alaba, Modric, Casemiro, Mendy and even Vinicius (although the Brazilian was forced to complete a cycle of yellow cards, they have gone through the rotation wheel of the Italian coach).

For Valverde it will be the second consecutive league game as a starter. The Uruguayan started at Vila-real instead of Modric. He had started the season as a fixture in Ancelotti’s line-ups, but the recovery of Kroos (and a sprained knee suffered by Valverde himself) meant that until last day’s game the Uruguayan had only been in the game again against Cádiz and Athletic in the 2021 farewell and in the first two cup matches.

Starting line-up of Real Madrid against Alavés in the League

Thus, the starting eleven presented by Ancelotti tonight at the Bernabéu against Alavés is made up of: Courtois; Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Mendy; Valverde, Casemiro, Modric; Asensio, Benzema and Vinicius. On the bench will be: Lunin, Nacho, Marcelo, Camavinga, Kroos, Ceballos, Isco, Lucas Vázquez, Rodrygo, Bale, Hazard and Jovic. The Italian coach has had to rule out three of the 26 players he called up for the final list: goalkeeper Diego Piñeiro, Vallejo and Mariano.

Militao is warned and if he is booked by Munuera Montero he will miss the game next Saturday 26 (18:30) against Rayo Vallecano.