“What a problematic club”, “TV off” - Fans furious as Xabi Alonso refuses to name attacker in Real Madrid line-up vs Espanyol

Real Madrid on X (formerly Twitter) are furious wth manager Xabi Alonso for dropping Arda Guler for their La Liga clash against Espanyol on Saturday, September 20. Many believe that the Turkish star should have played in the match ahead of the Argentine teenager Franco Mastantuono or the Spaniard Gonzalo Garcia.

Alonso has once again made changes to his starting XI at Real Madrid, now making it six different lineups in as many league matches. He has stuck with Thibaut Courtois in goal, with Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, and Alvaro Carreras also keeping their place in the backline.

Raul Asencio makes his way into the starting XI for Dean Huijsen, who is suspended after his red card against Real Sociedad. Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni are in the middle of the pitch, with Mastantuono joining them.

Kylian Mbappe leads the attack with Vinicius Jr by his side. Gonzalo makes the starting XI and his role is a mystery, as he could lineup on the right wing, or play in the hole behind the aforementioned attackers playing as strikers.

Fans have been questioning the decision to drop Guler more than any other comment on the starting XI. They posted:

Real Madrid can go five points clear of Barcelona with a win today, but the Catalan side can close the gap back to two points if they win their game on Sunday, September 21, against Getafe. However, they cannot take Espanyol lightly, as the Catalan side is also unbeaten and sit third in the table with 10 points.

Xabi Alonso talks about Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr ahead of Espanyol clash

Real Madrid manager dropped Vinicius Jr to the bench against Marseille in the UEFA Champions League during the week. The Spaniard was asked in his pre-match press conference if the Brazilian winger has lost the spark, and he said:

“He looks fine. Yesterday, after the other day, it seemed like it wasn’t the right time to talk to him. But today he was more positive. I talked to him a bit and did some exercises….”

“I saw him yesterday, and it wasn’t the time to talk, as I said. You have to have a bit of that intuition, and we talked a little today. But we’re only five league games in. There’s still a long way to go; this is a marathon until May. We have to take it step by step.”

Vinicius Jr has scored two goals and assisted once in his four LaLiga matches this season.

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Sripad is a veteran Sportskeeda football journalist who has been with the company for around 10 years. His tryst with writing happened in class XI when he started penning blogs, and his foray into football was during the early 2000s, watching matches with his cousins.

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If given a chance to change a football rule, Sripad wants VAR to be fully automated and offside rules to be less stringent. When not working, he likes to watch past Formula 1 races and play FIFA.

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Edited by Sripad