After reading the title of the article, you might have an answer in your mind. Some of you might think that Real Madrid should sign a centre-back, while some of you might be thinking the opposite. But before you jump to any conclusions, I would like you to do something.
Compare the given two defensive contingents.
The 2020/21 group – Sergio Ramos, Raphae Varane, Nacho, Eder Militao
The 2021/22 group – Eder MIlitao, David Alaba, Nacho, Jesus Vallejo
One can definitely observe that there is a drop in the overall quality of the defensive group. Agreed that Sergio Ramos has been injury-prone and Varane hasn’t been at his best both physically and mentally, and the current CB duo of David Alaba and Eder MIlitao might be an upgrade over them. But there is a clearly visible drop in the overall quality of the defensive department.
The performance of Real Madrid might not make it look like we are having a defensive crisis, because David Alaba and Eder MIlitao have been great, with the Brazilian particularly playing at another level. But when you combine it with the unreliability of Jesus Vallejo and the dip in the form of Nacho, it might actually be worrying. And our fears will only come true when one of the starting centre-backs will be unavailable.
There has been a lot of talk until now about Real Madrid having recognised this issue and are looking to sign a class defender in Antonio Rudiger to strengthen their defence. And AS went on to report that Los Blancos have identified Merih Demiral as their defensive target for the next summer.
But the latest reports from Jose Luis Sanchez and Mario Cortegana of MARCA, two of the most highly reliable journalists have confirmed that Real Madrid have withdrawn their interest in securing the signing of Rudiger. Both of them have also reported that the club is happy with the current pair of Alaba and MIlitao, which implies that the club doesn’t have any interest in getting a new starting centre-back.
Will the club regret this decision? Only time will give us the answer to that question. Every coin has two sides, and even this debate will have two sides. So let us have a look at the pros and cons of the club’s decision to not target a centre-back.