Real Madrid: 5 players who must shine at Valencia

Real Madrid will face Valencia at the Mestalla on Sunday night, and they need these five players to be at their best.

After defeating Huesca and Inter Milan, Real Madrid are feeling confident heading into Sunday night’s match against Valencia, but they won’t underestimate their opponents. Even though Valencia aren’t as strong as usual, they still have a few quality players like rising star Yunus Musah and Carlos Soler.

Here are five players on Real Madrid who will need to shine on Matchday 9 at the Mestalla, which is never an easy place to play.

DM Casemiro

Casemiro could use some rest, based on what we saw from him on Tuesday night at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano against Inter. While Case is the best defensive midfielder in the world, he put on a disasterclass against Antonio Conte’s side, making poor passes and uncharacteristic errors in defense.

It might be that Casemiro is overworked and needs rest after playing at such a high level in so many matches last season. But who replaces Case? There’s nobody else on the squad, really, who can play as a defensive midfielder, though Zinedine Zidane has used a double-pivot of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric this season.

If Casemiro starts, which looks likely, he needs to be much, much better than he was on Tuesday. Otherwise, Valencia could pick up an upset win.