Real Madrid’s 4-0 defeat to Barcelona in El Clasico has underlined the lack of faith that Carlo Ancelotti has in four members of his squad according to Marca; Gareth Bale, Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic and Mariano Diaz. The Italian coach has his reasons for this.
Regarding Bale, the thought is that the forward is focused primarily on helping Wales make it to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He’s played just two games since August; 66 minutes against Villarreal and three against Paris Saint-Germain. The reality is that the club are counting down the days until he leaves.
Hazard is a popular member of the dressing room at the Santiago Bernabeu and is working hard in training, but his physical condition doesn’t convince Ancelotti. The Italian believes he’s lost the verticality that made him great and prefers players of a profile like Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo Goes and Marco Asensio. Hazard is said to be hurt by Ancelotti’s attitude toward him.
Jovic is said to be unimpressive on a day-to-day basis at Valdebebas, unable to show the kind of fight needed to compete with Karim Benzema for minutes. Ancelotti doesn’t like his attitude and the club are thought to be minded to seek a new home for him in the summer transfer window.
As for Mariano, the case, like Hazard, is solely football. Ancelotti and his staff don’t consider him to be a Madrid-level player and believe that he’s only really of use in emergency situations, like last Sunday evening in El Clasico. He doesn’t want to leave the Santiago Bernabeu despite repeatedly being told he isn’t wanted.
When Hazard arrived in Spain, it was at the backend of trophy laden career at Chelsea, being the most exciting and outstanding player Premier league had seen for seasons. Hazard’s pedigree is undoubted in football and Coaches (except Carlo), the media and his colleagues all know this. Despite his size, his strength and fitness has never being questioned until Spain. Jose Mourinho rightly predicted the future and since he wasn’t Messi or some homegrown Spanish play, he was left exposed and unprotected weekly to hard crunching tackles culminating in the Champions League fixture against PSG where he was the best Madrid player in pitch before being substituted due another injury. There are video evidences all over the web showing every instances of his injury record in Spain.
Ancelotti is clearly a legend of the game but I’m starting to think his player management skills are waning and he plays to the gallery in press conferences when questioned about team rotation and not using some of his more experienced players when fit.
Vini Jr has had a sensational season so far especially the first half but it has been the veterans, led most notably by Karim Benzema that’s kept this team together during the post Ronaldo and Zidane era.
Zidane was unlucky with Hazard but he never doubted the little Belgian wizard playing him whenever he was fit because he knew that despite the injuries and fitness issues, not playing him would be detrimental to his form recovery back to his best.
When Madrid sent out James to Bayern, there were assortment of world class choices but this Madrid can only boast of 2 trusted attackers and without Carlo’s faith and careful management of his world class veteran attacker, they aren’t competing with Barcelona’s current front 3 and Ancelotti might end of with egg on his face when Madrid offloads Hazard to a team or manager that suits him.