22-year-old defender’s absence from the starting lineup continues to cost Real Madrid – Opinion | OneFootball

Real Madrid suffered another loss in La Liga on Saturday as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Real Betis. With this loss, the Merengues have lost their equality with Barcelona at the top of the league table, and now stand 3rd in the rankings, 2 points behind Atletico Madrid and 3 behind the Blaugranes.

Barring the first few minutes of the game, Los Blancos were far from their best level, and it was clear that they were missing the likes of Fede Valverde, Jude Bellingham, and Dani Ceballos in the midfield.

However, the defence also left a lot to be desired, even though Carlo Ancelotti was finally able to start two of his best and most experienced centre-backs together, i.e., David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger. It was quite clear from this game that this partnership still needs time and work to get to its best level.

Meanwhile, one defender who was conspicuous by his absence in this defensive line, of Ferland Mendy, David Alaba, Antonio Rudiger, and Lucas Vazquez, was this season’s breakout player, Raul Asencio.

Although the La Fabrica graduate is nowhere near as accomplished as these two veteran defenders, his performances with Real Madrid this season have been top-notch, and there is no doubt that he deserves an important role in the squad for these performances.

This argument for a starting spot for the defender received further backing in the defeat to Real Betis, as not having him in the starting lineup once again cost the Merengues.

Before this game, the last two defeats that Los Blancos suffered were in the La Liga game against Espanyol and in the Spanish Super Cup final against Barcelona. The Spanish defender was also missing from the starting line for those two games.

Against Espanyol, Ancelotti had opted to field Aurelien Tchouameni with Rudiger in the middle of the defence. Asencio was able to get into this game only 15 minutes after kick-off, as the German centre-back had to leave because of a physical problem, but he was not a part of the starting lineup per se.

Against Barcelona in the Super Cup final, the Italian also started Tchouameni and Rudiger as the centre-back pairing. The Blaugranes had already scored 5 goals past Real Madrid when Raul Asencio stepped on the field on the 52nd minute, and there were no more goals scored by the Catalans after his arrival on the pitch.

Undoubtedly, there were other factors at play in these three defeats. But the pattern goes on to confirm the importance of the young defender for this team, and hopefully, he will continue to get chances to further showcase his skills in the weeks and months to come.