Real Madrid: Marcelo had an encouraging display against Elche
By Parshva Shah
The left-back put on a decent shift in Real Madrid’s draw vs. Elche.
Real Madrid’s six-match winning streak was put to a halt by newly-promoted Elche as the two teams played out a 1-1 draw. Zinedine Zidane decided to make rotations, including Marcelo in the lineup, who was starting his first game for Real Madrid since November.
Marcelo is one of the only two players from the old guard (the other being Isco) who hasn’t recovered from the 2018 slump, losing out his place to 2019 signing Ferland Mendy. Mendy has been a defensive juggernaut and doesn’t make the team look like a house of cards looking to collapse. His inclusion has infused a sense of solidity at the book, automatically making the team less vulnerable.
Against Elche, there were instances where Marcelo was caught high up the pitch and that led to counter attacks from the right-hand side, led by their maverick striker Lucas Boyé and/or Emiliano Rigoni.
However, this performance from Marcelo was much better one may say. Agreed, his presence does make the team look shallow defensively, but he also had good moments defensively, and I can firmly say that this was one of his better performances this season overall.
There was a particular instance in the second half where he was the last-man defending. All the other three defenders from the backline were in advanced positions, but Marcelo had anticipated the ball falling in Real Madrid’s area and he was there to mop up the danger by successfully clearing the ball. It was not an extraordinary defensive moment. Heck, there was nothing great in it. But the very fact that Marcelo was not out of position is definitely something worth pointing out.
Not just that, he didn’t give the ball away in dangerous areas unlike previous outings. He was looking good on the ball, which is obvious as he is undeniably one of the most technically-gifted players in the entire squad. He had a thunderous volley rebound off the crossbar and almost assisted Karim Benzema with a chested pass inside the opposition penalty box. All these moments were reminiscent of the Marcelo of the past. What also stood out was the fact that he has just TWO crosses all game. Yes, just two! And mind you, both of them menacing ones and assist-worthy.
Of course, he is still way off the levels needed to regain his spot back from the rock-solid defensive wall that is Ferland Mendy, but this performance was definitely a positive sign and would do a lot of good to Marcelo.
There is no doubt that if Marcelo gets even 80-90% close to the levels we expect from him, he will present a new headache to Zinedine Zidane. As good as Mendy has been defensively, he has the knack of losing the ball in dangerous positions on the pitch, while his offensive contributions (significant ones) are few and far between. If Zidane takes Mendy’s frailties into consideration, he might award Marcelo with a longer run provided the Brazilian repays his faith.
Marcelo might be on the wrong side of his thirties, and also the farthest from the starting XI he has ever been in his career (his developing years included too), but he showed against Elche that he still has something left in his tank.