Real Madrid: Ferland Mendy establishing himself as top option

Marcelo’s neck injury has opened up an opportunity for Ferland Mendy to be Real Madrid’s starting left back, and the former Lyon star is seizing his chance.

In Real Madrid’s 3-0 blowout loss to PSG that created quite the stir in the media, Ferland Mendy was one of the lone bright spots for Los Blancos. With the caveat that he was going up against PSG’s weakest starter in right winger Pablo Sarabia, Mendy looked fabulous defensively on a day in which the other three starters in Real’s back four looked woefully inept.

Mendy mostly stayed in defense with Eden Hazard focusing on his attacking duties, and he looked just as impervious as he did on Matchday 3 against Villarreal. Against even the toughest of assignments, Mendy looks assured defensively, and while fans knew he’d be an upgrade over Marcelo on defense, they may have underestimated just how much Real needed that additional defensive support on the flanks.

He was even better against Sevilla, performing at a high level on the road as Real Madrid faced a team that was first place in La Liga coming into Matchday 5. Mendy had to go up against the tricky Lucas Ocampos, who has been in good form this season and put forward arguably his best effort of the campaign. Ocampos was dangerous off the ball and incisive with it, always looking to get around his man with pace and skill before delivering a cross to a poaching striker in the box.

Perhaps any other fullback would have been roundly beaten by Ocampos, who had the experienced Jesus Navas bombing up the pitch behind him at right back. Julen Lopetegui hoped to expose Real with these overlaps on the right side, but Mendy and, yes, Eden Hazard combined well defensively to stop this from happening.

Mendy finished his third start of the 2019-2020 season with three tackles, seven of eight duels won on the ground, and three fouls drawn in a sublime defensive performance at left back. Just as Villarreal’s Samuel Chukwueze tested him, Ocampos tried to give Mendy all he could handle.

But Mendy wouldn’t be beaten, as he helped Real keep Thibaut Courtois’ first clean sheet in months. Sevilla gave Mendy all they had to offer, but the young left back put a world-class foot forward in a must-win game.

Marcelo is so good in the attack that he will continue to get game time once he  returns from his neck injury, but Real Madrid’s squad already greatly favors attacking over defending. For example, they barely won 3-2 against Levante after their defense allowed a pair of second-half goals.

So for Real, prioritizing defense over attacking power at fullback is imperative, because they already like to get forward. They need someone with Mendy’s blend of tackling ability, defensive awareness, and pace to avoid getting hit on deadly counters, because they are already asking Casemiro and the center backs to cover a lot of ground, including when Dani Carvajal bombs forward to make crosses.

Real Madrid have a budding partnership between Hazard and Mendy on the left side, and the latter is proving to be worthy every penny. He’s already shown up in two big games for Real, including the PSG game in which seemingly nobody else on Los Blancos showed up.

It will be interesting to see if Mendy uses Marcelo’s injury to lock down the starting position in big games, because his superiority in defense should continue to prove valuable against the best opponents Real will face in 2019-2020.