Real Madrid: Why Rodrygo deserves to start in El Clasico in place of Hazard

Real Madrid are ready for the Clasico. It’s a game that they have to win for many, many reasons that I’ve written about before. They also have an advantage over the opponents if you look at the injury lists of both teams. Real Madrid have recovered most, if not all of their injured players. Barcelona’s casualty list seems to grow each passing day.

It was confirmed by manager Carlo Ancelotti that Eden Hazard and Dani Carvajal have fully recovered from their respective injuries and will be available for the game against Barcelona on Sunday.

But, there are quite a few reasons why Dani Carvajal shouldn’t start against Barcelona on Sunday. It’ll be great for him to make a slow and proper return to action, and I’m sure he wouldn’t want to risk aggravating his injury by featuring earlier than he should. Judging by his injury record, he should really take it slow for a few more days.

As for Eden Hazard, it’s more of the same. I think it’s best to ease him into the line-up, and if that means sitting on the bench for the Clasico, so be it. I am sure Ancelotti would rather have Hazard on the bench than start him at the risk of getting injured again. I am not saying that it’s a given that he will get injured, obviously not. But it has happened before.

Besides, that’s not the only reason Hazard should start on the bench.

Rodrygo will be able to provide things Hazard simply won’t be able to in defense

Right now, if Dani Carvajal is to be rested for the game against Barcelona, it will mean that Lucas Vazquez will once again start at right-back for Real Madrid. He’s definitely the next best option for Los Blancos, but the thing is, he still has his shortcomings. Vazquez is not the best defender in the world, by any means. In fact, he is actually quite average defensively, possibly even below that.

That’s why he would require a lot of help in defending against a team that uses the width of the pitch. Barcelona tend to bring their full-backs into the attack and hit the opponent’s defense with constant overloads. If Vazquez starts at right-back, it’ll be best if someone that can support him on the defensive end starts at right-wing.

Rodrygo is just the right man for the job. He’s very good defensively, and he constantly tracks back to help the team’s right-back out. Obviously, Rodrygo brings a lot to the table offensively as well, as we saw pretty well during the game against Shakhtar. Rodrygo is also a better presser than Hazard.

If Real go with Hazard as the third attacking option, not only is the width on the right diminished, there would be little to no defensive coverage from the Belgian. One could argue that he would make up for it on the other end of the pitch, but at this time Real need stability on both ends of the pitch for this game.

Of course, who starts and who doesn’t is the question that only Ancelotti knows the answer to, but if I were him, I’d play Rodrygo at first, and then bring Hazard on to do some extra damage in the final third.