The international break is a good chance for some of the players to catch their breath and get back to full fitness. For Real Madrid, according to Marca, it could give both Ferland Mendy and Marcelo enough time to recover for the next clash.
Saying that Real Madrid have been rather unlucky with injuries this season would be an understatement.
After all, the Galacticos already suffered a total of 13 fitness setbacks since the beginning of their 2019 pre-season tour. But now, they are finally getting some of their players back.
Interestingly enough, with all three of Marcelo, Mendy and Nacho injured at the same time, Zidane was left with no natural left-back at the Santiago Bernabeu.
But now that he’s seemingly getting two of them back at once, it might pose him a serious selection headache for the upcoming fixture.
Usually, there would be no question about it – Marcelo has been a long-standing starter in that left-back position and his reputation often precedes him.
Starting him would be the easy choice for Zidane but one should take a deeper look at the performances of both players.
The young Frenchman has been outstanding, as we previously detailed, whenever he has been called into action and has been thriving in Marcelo’s absence.
Unfortunately, that was abruptly interrupted by an injury of his own but now that he might be back after the international break, it could be a good idea for Zidane to give him more continuity.
Particularly impressive were his defensive contributions – Mendy has so far averaged 3.5 tackles and two interceptions per game and has not been dribbled past at all in La Liga.
But with no offensive highlights to talk about apart from one dribble per game, the Frenchman is very much, at least so far, a defensively oriented left-back.
The only thing Real have to do now is to manage Mendy properly and let him develop even further.
It all starts, however, with giving him enough game time. Marcelo, on the hand, hasn’t been as good defensively – with only 1.3 tackles and one interception per game – but offers a unique offensive skill set, as we’ve seen countless times already.
This season alone, he already has one assist to his name and has accompanied that with three key passes, one shot and 1.7 dribbles per game in La Liga.
Either way, it looks like it will be a choice between attack and defence.