It already looks like Barcelona will be vastly improved from last season, so Real Madrid will need step up their game if they want to retain the title.
They haven’t had the most convincing start to the season and had to rely on VAR to bail them out with a late penalty over Real Betis, so the last thing Zinedine Zidane needs is injuries to reliable players.
Eden Hazard looks set for another spell on the sidelines so that’s a blow, but losing Dani Carvajal will also weaken their defence after he was ruled out for at least a couple of months:
El tiempo de recuperación será aproximadamente de dos meses.
— Arancha Rodríguez (@AranchaMOBILE) October 2, 2020
It’s easy to make decisions in hindsight but it’s important to remember that Real Madrid made the decision to sell Achraf Hakimi this summer after two impressive seasons with Borussia Dortmund.
It was felt that the presence of Carvajal would keep him out of the side, but it means that Zidane is having a bit of a crisis on both sides of the defence.
He sold Sergio Reguilon despite Marcelo’s constant fitness worries so that puts a lot of pressure on Mendy, while it now looks like Nacho or Eder Militao will need to play for a lengthy spell.
They are both good defenders but they are really centre backs who can be pushed into a wider role, so this could really weaken them, especially in an attacking sense.
The logic looked fine at the time to let Reguilon and Hakimi go, but you can guarantee that Zidane would like to have both of them back at this point.
With hindsight he should’ve kept the younger Hakimi and Reguilon and let go of Marcello and Carbajal