Over winter, most considered Alvaro Odriozola to be one of the first players out the door when Florentino Perez would kick off his summer rebuild at Real Madrid. This was backed up by Zinedine Zidane’s preference to deploy Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vazquez, Nacho and Fede Valverde ahead of him at right back, with Odriozola fifth in the pecking order.
Despite this, he continued to work assiduously according to Marca, with his behaviour at all times impeccable. A change occurred when he played in El Clasico against Barcelona, however, performing well. Since then he’s played in ten of Madrid’s last eleven games, with many criticising the decision to field Vinicius in an experimental right wing-back role against Chelsea over him.
His displays have forced the club to reconsider his position in the team, and the idea of him staying on at the Santiago Bernabeu is no longer far-fetched given the uncertainty surround Lucas Vazquez’s future and the injury problems suffered by Carvajal. The sentiment is that his emergence has prevented their need to go to the market in search of a right-back this close-season.
