Since the last edition of Question Corner, a few things have happened! The winter break has begun, we’re FIFA Club World Cup Champions and the January transfer window is looming. With that in mind, we move onto your questions!
The battle of the defensive midfielders:
Should Llorente keep his place in starting XI or Casemiro should be given his place back?
— Siddj (@siddj_14) December 27, 2018
Casemiro has long been the undisputed anchor of the Real Madrid midfield. 3 years and numerous trophies down the line, the Brazilian now finally has a fight on his hands for his position. Marcos Llorente had been largely forgotten about for a long time since returning to Madrid.
Llorente has always been coveted as somebody with good potential. The Spaniard, however, has been putting in consistently strong performances during his call-up in the Brazilians absence. Whilst both boast solid tackling numbers – Llorente displays a much more rounded game. So far in the La Liga season, no player with more than 90 minutes has better passing accuracy than Llorente with 94.5%. An example of his well-rounded game? Look no further than the match against Valencia. He completed 95% of his 83 passes, 96 touches, he played on 10 successful long-balls, made 3 tackles, completed 2 take-on’s, 1 interception and created 1 chance. That kind of performance alongside his man-of-the-match winning performance in the Club World Cup final shows that Solari has a choice to make when Casemiro returns.
The Brazilian has long been the Sheriff in town in that position but would some competition be so bad? What Llorente offers is something that cannot be ignored. He certainly pivots far better with Toni Kroos than Casemiro does and his style suits the possession-heavy ideas of Real Madrid. In my opinion, Solari should continue fielding Llorente and let Casemiro fight for his position. Perhaps that’ll see both players play at their best in order to keep their place, that doesn’t sound too bad to me.