It was expected that Martin Odegaard would be starting in La Liga this weekend, it’s just that it looked much more likely that he would be playing for Real Sociedad rather than Real Madrid.
Zinedine Zidane has never been a manager who puts trust in youth players unless they truly deserve it, and he’s decided it’s time for the Norwegian to get his chance from the start tonight:
It’s a quirk of the fixture schedule that it’s his former loan club that he’ll be playing against in Real Sociedad, so it will be fascinating to see how he fits into the team.
It’s a fairly bold selection from Zidane because it looks like Kroos and Modric will be his deeper lying midfielders, but there’s not a lot of pace in there so they could struggle if Sociedad get regular chances on the counter attack.
Ferland Mendy also gets the nod over Marcelo so he will have a chance to establish himself as the starter this season, but all eyes will be on Odegaard this evening.