Questions began to increase and question marks were hovering about the Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti’s marginalization of some of the team’s stars this season.
Fingers started pointing at Ancelotti after he caused his team’s humiliating loss in the Clasico at the hands of rivals Barcelona, 0-4, last Sunday, in the Spanish League.
And the Spanish newspaper “Marca” raised a question about the reasons why Ancelotti did not rely on the quartet of Eden Hazard, Luka Jovic, Gareth Bale and Mariano Diaz.
Bale, Hazard and Jovic did not appear in the Clasico, while Diaz participated for several minutes in the second half.
Since the beginning of Ancelotti’s second era in Madrid this season, the Italian coach has shown his lack of confidence in the quartet, with the exception of Gareth Bale, who started his first 3 matches before his long absence with injury.
As for Hazard, he had the opportunity to play in 10 of the first 12 matches that the royal team played this season, but he participated as a substitute in most of the confrontations, as was the case of Jovic and Francesco Isco.
Despite recovering from injury and returning to training, Bale’s appearance with the team has become uncommon among the fans, although the player is ready whenever he receives a call-up to participate with the Wales national team in international matches.
Since last August, the Welsh winger has played only two matches, playing 66 minutes against Villarreal and another 3 minutes against Paris Saint-Germain.
The 32-year-old was absent from the Real Madrid squad in the Clasico because he felt some annoyances, while he failed to go to the Santiago Bernabeu to watch the match.
Although Hazard has been away from injuries in the recent period, this did not help him convince his coach to rely on him in many matches, especially the major confrontations in various tournaments.
Ancelotti prefers the trio of Rodrygo, Marco Asensio and Vinicius Junior over Hazard, which caused the Belgian player to become angry, according to press reports that appeared in the past hours.
The Real Madrid coach confirmed his lack of confidence in the duo, Jovic and Diaz, after he decided to change the method of playing in the Clasico, to compensate for the absence of French Karim Benzema, the first Real Madrid striker.
The veteran coach preferred to play with Croatian midfielder Luka Modric as a fake striker instead of pushing the Serbian player or his Dominican colleague.