One of the most obvious conclusions left by Real Madrid’s defeat of Celta in the return to the Santiago Bernabéu (5-2) is that Marcelo he has no place, at least for the moment, on this team. The Brazilian stayed throughout the break in Madrid, recovered well from his injury and worked with the group without problems during practically the entire period dedicated to the national teams. Logic invited us to think that Ancelotti would give him the title, even more so after it was learned that David Alaba had returned from Austria with a muscular overload.
But far from it Carletto put a youth squad with hardly any experience ahead of Marcelo, the first Madrid captain after Sergio Ramos left in the first team as Miguel Gutiérrez, a jewel of La Fábrica that is making its way, to the detriment of a Madridista glory like the Brazilian, who has stagnated even more in the past. Ancelotti barely gave Marcelo one more minute the extension against Celta; the face on the side was a poem, used only to waste time on so-called trash minutes. At the end of the match, the side left without saying goodbye to the fans, something usual in him. Hours after this event, Ancelotti gave the list of summoned to travel to Milan, where on Wednesday the whites begin a new journey in the Champions League against Inter (9:00 p.m.). The Brazilian did not appear in it. Unexpected drop at the last minute. From the club it was reported that it was due to physical problems …
In any case, this is not a novel or surprising phenomenon; Marcelo has been losing prominence in Madrid for years now. In the 2017-18 academic year, his performance began to decline and he received loud whistles from the Santiago BernabéuAlthough the happy ending of the course (with the Champions League in Kiev and Marcelo performing at a good level) covered everything. In 2018-19, he began his descent into hell: Lopetegui gave him the title first, but soon he was injured muscularly and, when he returned, he did so in an evident state of lack of form that made it very difficult for him to compete for the position .
Solari ended up surrendering to the evidence and relieved him to align Reguilón in the usual eleven, although the return of Zidane to the bench at the end of that course gave the Brazilian hope that he could re-engage with the white dynamic. But in the summer of 2019, Madrid spent no less than 48 million euros on Ferland Mendy and Zizou, despite the fact that they started giving equal opportunities to bothHe ended up trusting in the defensive solvency of the Frenchman, less exuberant in attack, but a rock in retreat.
Marcelo’s salary, a problem
And until now, a moment in which it has not been enough for Marcelo that Mendy is just back from an injury and totally lacking in form and muscle, nor that Alaba was injured, nor that Miguel Gutiérrez still lacks stripes … The Brazilian went to the bench and Ancelotti is already beginning to hint at what his last season in white will be like. The evolution of minutes from 2017-18 to 2020-21 speaks clearly: 3,672′-1,857′-1,852′-1,337. And this season, a minute (and the extension).
In any case, Marcelo cannot be surprised: he knew that his role this year was aimed at being a substitute. Madrid has been hanging the transferable poster for two summers, but its very high record (eight million net per year) prevents interested teams from launching an offer. They prefer to wait for their contract to end (in June 2022) to get it for free; in Turkey, various teams have shown their interest in him. Marcelo has been working since last year with a personal trainer, Adolfo Madrid, to get in shape and try to regain his position, but it seems that the problem was not only physical. The great Marcelo, the worthy successor of Roberto Carlos at Real Madrid, is coming to an end. And the season that now starts does not look in the best way for the ’12’, a Madrid captain who will hardly be able to exercise on the field and yes a lot from the bench.