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Real Madrid is on the brink of arguably their biggest week of the season to date. First up, after the international midweek, Sevilla visits the Bernabeu. Real fell to the Rojiblancos at the Sanchez Pizjuan earlier this season. Los blancos, who still remain two points astray of Barcelona, risk going a tragic five points back with a loss because the Blaugrana are unlikely to misfire against 14th place Almeria. Next up, the Wednesday fallowing the Sevilla match, Lyon comes to town where we have it all to do ladies and gentlemen. If we fail to beat the French outfit by 2 goals then it will be more than half a decade in which we have not advanced from the Round of 16 in the Champions League. Let the criticism pour on the Capital if that happens. Our summer spending will be looked upon as a failure and the words "you can't by trophies" will never stop ringing around in our heads. I don't even want to get into that argument but there is a lot of things I want to discuss. I really wanted to start doing the video discussions for this article but I was experiencing technical difficulties. Perfect, on make or break week.
The biggest question is player fatigue and rest. We're just coming off the Tenerife trip, our most important players have internationals in the midweek. Sevilla comes to visit on Saturday and 4 days later we have Lyon in the Bernabeu to decide our Champions League fate as we know it. I guess if we're talking about resting players, we have to set out our priority. Is it La Liga or the Champions League? I want la decima as much as anyone but I'm certainly not going to sacrifice being 2 points of Barca domestically either. So can we afford to rest players during the Sevilla game so they are rested for Lyon?
Perhaps those players that are not called up for internationals could play a more significant role against Sevilla. Players like Guti, Granero, Mahamadou Diarra, and Benzema and Drenthe if they are fit in time. Obviously Xabi Alonso would have to take place from start to finish because he is suspended for the Lyon match but some would say that he shouldn't play a big part because the team needs to practice without him to keep out Champions League hopes alive. The plus side is that we have a midfield surplus in the team if everyone is healthy, Guti, Granero, Lass, Diarra, Xabi Alonso, Kaka, Van der Vaart, and Gago, not to mention Mosquera who has earned several selections. That's nine midfielders not including Marcelo who plays there at times. I'm not going to get into who should play where and why until I do the pre-match thoughts because I don't know who will be fit for those matches yet and because I'm still turning over these things in my head.
At the back we will just have to go with the Ramos-Albiol-Garay-Arbeloa set up. We really don't have any options do we? Metzelder is made of glass, Marcelo can't defend well enough to handle Sevilla's Navas (he's suspended for Lyon so no worries there). With the Spain team as well established as it is, Arbeloa probably won't play a big part against France and should be as well rested as the Brazilian Marcelo. I thought that Tenerife's attackers sometimes were unmarked particularly in our own area but I can't exactly contribute that to Albiol and Garay alone. I give a lot of the credit to Tenerife themselves for throwing 7 bodies at a time at least when attacking in the second half. But I am a fan of the Garay/Albiol center back partnership. Garay made a few last ditch efforts to stop onslaughts the other day and had an assist.
Up front, its Higuain or Raul, who got one at the weekend (hell yeah!), if not both (depending on what formation we play) if Benzema can't get fit. I'm puzzled to the extend of his injury. I know it's the Madrid plaguing sports hernia that Guti and Kaka have endured this season but I haven't seen anything (unless it's escaped my eye) that has told me how long he will be absent. His layoff worries me because even though we are in March now, he really hasn't shown his best yet I don't think. I feel as if he has a long way to come.
My number one concern is that our internationals escape their untimely friendly matches unscathed. I just finished up watching Brazil's 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland, and Kaka didn't seem to pick up any injuries. Thank goodness because he's had a great run of form lately. Shut up haters. We'll have to wait on everyone else but arguably our internationals are our most vital players.
I guess it's only a matter of time before these questions are answered. I'm sure that Pellegrini has had these topics swirling around is his pool of thoughts. I know I have. I'm really glad I have break starting immediately after I finish class on Friday, because I'm going to be stressing hardcore over these matches and don't want my roommates to feel my wrath (evil laugh, kidding..) I will be saying a few prayers this week.
HALA MADRID!
Bobby