After a disappointing start to our league campaign, it's really important that we don't drop points anymore, so now suddenly this match against Deportivo Alaves, which would've otherwise been considered an easy fixture for us, has turned into a crucial game that we really need to win.
Hopefully though, it won't be too difficult to get the 3 points that we need. Alaves, the team who was newly-promoted to La Liga last season that finished mid-table and surprised us all by beating Barca at the Camp Nou, getting good results against Atletico, and reaching the Copa del Rey final, has been completely ruined after we took Marcos Llorente and Theo Hernandez from them. They have lost all 5 of their games so far this season and have sacked their manager. They are in a really bad state right now, and I'm kind of sad to see them like this, but hopefully we can get a good win against them that will boost our confidence.
However, besides Benzema and Kovacic who have been out injured for a while and we all know won't play, we have a few more new absences that won't make this game entirely easy for us:
Marcelo is out after suffering an injury in the game against Real Betis, and to make matters worse, his backup Theo Hernandez is also out injured after dislocating his shoulder against Real Sociedad. This means that Nacho is likely to start at left back. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Nacho and he is amazing defensively, but he lacks the attacking creativity that we get from both Marcelo and Theo. Zidane could maybe start Achraf Hakimi to solve this problem, but Nacho is the more reliable option so I'm betting on him to start and counting on him for a good performance.
Furthermore, Toni Kroos is also out with a rib injury. With Kovacic out as well, I'm really hoping to see either Dani Ceballos or Marcos Llorente start in midfield. Zidane might opt for a 4-3-3 formation and start Casemiro, Modric, and Isco in midfield leaving out Llorente and Ceballos, but in my opinion that would be a bad idea. Modric and Isco are both attack-minded players, so we would lack a player who stays in central midfield and controls the tempo of the game with his amazing passing, which is exactly what Kroos does for us. I think that Dani Ceballos is perfectly capable of playing this role for us, and so is Marcos Llorente (although Llorente is more of a CDM and plays more in Casemiro's position, I'm sure that with his passing ability he could do a great job executing Kroos' role). Either way, let's hope Zidane makes the right decision here.
Let's hope that we can get this victory and get back on track! ¡Hala Madrid!
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