Real Madrid manager Alvaro Arbeloa has a lot of tough decisions to juggle in a lineup full of star players, and as those star players start to return from injury and acquire fitness, the Spanish manager is increasingly on the clock to choose between qualified players.
One of the latest significant injury returns is that of Eder Militao, who did not start against Mallorca but played so well and scored off the bench that the Brazilian international may be accelerated in his increase of responsibilties. Militao is now in play to start his first game since tearing his hamstring in December, with Real Madrid risking further aggravation for the benefit of having their best defender available against Harry Kane and Bayern Munich.
As Mario de la Riva of Diario AS reports, Eder Militao's return from injury makes things complicated for Dean Huijsen, and even though he and Militao started together preferentially earlier this season, Antonio Rudiger's return to form may make Alvaro Arbeloa lean towards the veteran pairing starting again this crucial Champions League quarterfinal opener at the Santiago Bernabeu. But Rudiger was not fully fit to start the season, and Diario AS's Marco Ruiz reports, Huijsen will not be considered a starter with Militao back and Rudiger fully fit.
Dean Huijsen is about to see the bench
The thing is, because Huijsen and Militao have started together and we have seen at times in the past, despite their overall success in 2023/24 when Militao came back at the end of the season from an ACL tear, there were signs of them not quite fitting each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Rudiger can be great at man marking certain top strikers like Erling Haaland with his physicality and, well, a certain quality of being very annoying to strikers with his antics. But he can also be rash, overly aggressive, and cost the team against more smoother or speeder players who rely on a more finessed game that takes advantage of concentration lapses and positional errors even an experienced Rudiger can fall victim to.
Huijsen may thus unfairly be a big loser in the Militao return from injury, which while great news for Real Madrid, could carry the negative of exposing Rudiger. Militao can cover more for Rudiger than Huijsen can, so the net effect should be positive overall, but if Huijsen does not start against Bayern Munich, it could be the beginning of a rough patch of minutes for the Spaniard in the coming months.