Without Ramos at the foot of the Himalayas

Seven minutes for statistics and five weeks in limbo. Ramos will not cross the Liverpool-Barça-Liverpool gorge, that will travel frantically through Madrid in nine days. At the foot of that Himalayas is the Eibar, author's team in waning phase. LHe has been downhill for three days and is not used to it. In fact, in none of the five previous seasons was he in that trance at this point, although his sequence of points was already indicative: 54-51-47-42, from furthest to closest, in the previous four years. He now has 23 and a devastating streak. He has added four of the last 33 he played and has not won since January 3 (Follow today's game live on As.com).

Direct football is no longer a trend. Its four emblems, Osasuna, Alavés, Getafe and Eibar are the teams with the fewest scorers in the category (23 goals for the first two, 22 for the last two) and they have suffered a notable drop in their expectations. In fact, Eibar is the most affected because its presence in the opposite area exceeds that of the rest. It is the fifth team that shoots the most on goal, has 50% possession, remains the team that loses the most balls and recovers the most as a result of its extremely high pressure and he also appears as the one that sends the most centers to the rival area, but that expansive football that Mendilibar brought is not enough.

He has only scored 13 goals in play and keeps salvation a stone's throw away thanks to his expertise in set pieces and Kike García, who with eight targets has already equaled his best course as a gunsmith.

Bryan Gil and Vinicius, dribbling festival

So Valdebebas Arrives with five casualties (recovers Cote), little ammunition and the spice of Bryan Gil, LaLiga's fifth dribbler, with figures similar to those of Vinicius, another troublemaker. “There are no players like him left,” laments Mendilibar, who has achieved three of his four wins away from Ipurua.

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On the other side, Madrid has been playing their games and those of others for a long time. He still has in his hand to hunt down Barça without resorting to third parties but not Atlético. And its dependence on Benzema borders on exaggeration. The French he has scored eight goals in his last six games. If he scores today, it will be his best streak since he arrived at Madrid

The lesions

Zidane, in any case, relive the nightmare of injuries, They are already approaching fifty in the course, despite the fact that this week FIFA has been less burdensome than on other occasions. Even so, he meets again with a scrawny midfield. Valverde was injured in Vigo and Modric is still overexploited in Croatia: he played all three games. Casemiro, on the other hand, got a break. Kroos, who could not be with Germany due to some inconvenience, narrowly entered the list. He will be against Liverpool, but it looks like Isco will occupy his place today.

The absence of Ramos, again relieved by Nacho, has become customary (he has only played 20 of the 38 games of the course). The casualties do not allow Zidane to relieve some starters one step away from the commitment against Liverpool. Nor does qualification tolerate it: one misstep takes him out of the League. That is an anguish shared by Eibar: he is the only one of those below that has to face the big three. That is your Himalayas.