La Liga Matchday 15 | Real Madrid vs Granada

Injuries & Suspensions:

1. Eden Hazard: cleared and included in tomorrow's game.
2. Isco: Back from an ankle knock and included in tomorrow's game
3. Modric: Suffering from muscle overload. Return date: N/A
4. Vinicius: recovered from gastroenteritis. Included in tomorrow's game.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers: Thibaut Courtois, Andriy Lunin, Diego Altube.
Defenders: Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Nacho Fernandez, Marcelo, Alvaro Odriozola, Ferland Mendy.
Midfielders: Toni Kroos, Casemiro, Fede Valverde, Martin Odegaard, Isco.
Forwards: Eden Hazard, Karim Benzema, Marco Asensio, Lucas Vazquez, Luka Jovic, Vinicius Junior, Mariano Diaz, Rodrygo Goes.

Probable lineup: Courtois; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Valverde, Casemiro, Kroos; Vazquez, Benzema, Hazard

Real Madrid La Liga form: DLWWWW
Granada La Liga form: WWDDLL

Dependimg on how today's games go we might be 3 points ahead by the end of this matchday

I wouldn't change anything from the other days line up other than Vini and Valverde in for Rodrygo and Modric

Atlético are 0-1 up against La Real. I was really hoping they would drop points tonight.

We are going to have to be perfectto keep up with Atleti. Seems like no other team than us can take points off them

The good news is, the league is still very far from being over. They are bound to drop points sooner or later.

My money is on Sevilla and Valencia, one of them has to take some points off them. All they have to do is lose one game against someone else and then get murdered in the return leg against Madrid.

I would really hate it to lose the league to such a shitty, talentless side.

I see Zidane pulling an Ancelotti and starting his best 11 constantly with no rest.

Well we should... isn't the winter break soon or do we not have one this season?

Well when ZZ was rotating we were getting humiliated left and right. This is the correct approach imo

Shoutout to whoever told Zidane to stop his rotation nonsense, it was getting out of hand

Confirmed lineup:

Our starting XI @GranadaCdeF_en! #HalaMadrid | #RealMadridGranada pic.twitter.com/DcT1sGQME8

— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) December 23, 2020

What a crap half. We lose Rodrygo and Zidane uses Beta Asensio

Dull half. Rodrygo our only spark and in comes Asensio.......fml

Casemiro and varane this game are huge liabilities on the ball. Making everyone’s job harder

Scrappy win but a win nonetheless. Glad Benzema is continuing his goal run.

Varane needs to get back in form ASAP.

Absolute clutch goal by Casemiro. Wonder why we just don't put Casemiro and Ramos up top next time we can't score

Not even going to lie, but Asensio had a terrific half. Well played

Didn’t get a chance to see game today. How was Vallejo?

I’m looking thru Marca to see what actually happened in game. And I came across their player ratings (uno a uno). I read it first in Spanish and then switched to English version. Low and behold it’s not the same? They rated Modric as a late entry in game, yet he was not included in lineup today!!

Vallejo and their whole backline i think stood up well against us. Got subbed later to make way for Sanchez who i thikk came on to play like Ramos aka up top

Hala, do you think he could be a possible candidate to come back?

I had thought he was gone for good after his disastrous loan in epl and that only reason for his loan to Granada was because there were no takers re sale. But lately, I heard he was playing well at Granada and had become a  starter getting a lot of playing time.

Our CM situation can become an issue in a relatively short time frame. Both Ramos and Nacho could choose to retired any time now, Varane continues to commit  dumb mistakes and his contract will run out in 2022, plus no indication of renewal (by both club and player) and Militao so far has not lived up to expectations.

We’ve already seen, the club made a mistake in selling off Theo, I hate to see the same thing happen for another defensive position.

Although, I haven’t seen Vallejo play for a long time now, I did see him stand out at Zaragoza as an 18 year old, both as a leader and player and similarly with Spanish youth team. I also saw him at Madrid as sadly lacking confidence much like Illarramendi was, perhaps not able to handle the pressure at a club like Madrid. Bottom line is I just don’t know if he could be a potential option or not?

title race is still long, the good thing is, this isnt a situation where a draw is like a loss because of a rival side's likelihood to win every game. atleti will have some draws and losses here and there.....it will definitely be a marathon. i've heard great things about theo at milan tbh i'm not sure i can tag that as a mistake. i dont know that he would have reproduced similar performances under the scrutiny that comes with playing for real madrid

titosantill wrote:title race is still long, the good thing is, this isnt a situation where a draw is like a loss because of a rival side's likelihood to win every game. atleti will have some draws and losses here and there.....it will definitely be a marathon. i've heard great things about theo at milan tbh i'm not sure i can tag that as a mistake. i dont know that he would have reproduced similar performances under the scrutiny that comes with playing for real madrid

Oh come on Tito. It’s more than obvious club gave up on Theo too early. You can say they had to put him in an environment where he could develop with more playing time, but if that was the path, they should have lent him or a sale with buyback rather than the outright sale!

@Bill, no i don't think Vallejo will be back. I haven't watched him much this season but he reminds me of Llorente. Good CB in his own right but very far from being RM starter or back up quality

We'll probably sell him to a midtable LaLiga team in the summer

As for Theo, no we didn't make a mistake selling him. At the time he was with us he couldn't even control a ball, he was a disaster defensively. Had he shown even a glimpse of what he's showing now we'd kept him, when we sold him we had no back up to Marcelo

The mistakes we made were selling Llorente and Reguillon who were both starter material for us and who are thriving at their other teams now

You could see the potential in Hernandez. He just needed game time.

Really happy he is doing well at Milan. Brahim too.

Real Madrid and many other clubs make mistake with young players. Selling too fast or bringing them in and there's no place for them in the team.

Hopefully Reguilon returns next season.

And with Isco mulling over leaving both Brahim and Kubo may have a chance in the team