Best duo is loading?
There is no greater palliative to offensive lukewarmness than a seamless rearguard. Since the Anfield game, Madrid’s lights have gone out in the rival area, but on their own they enjoy a new wall that allows Courtois to breathe more calmly every day. If last season’s successes were based on Militao-Alaba, Rüdiger has taken advantage of the Austrian’s physical and performance problems to scratch importance. The doubts at the beginning of the season, where the German appeared intermittently, without allowing him to enjoy the continuity that a defender needs, are being cleared game by game. Of the 10 goals conceded by Madrid in the first 7 games with Militao and Rüdiger as the starting central pair, it has gone to 5 in the last 9. The white team, on average, concedes more than one goal per game (41 in 40 games). In this last section with the new wall in the rear, the figure remains at just 0.55…
Adapted to each other
Having Militao as a partner in continuous fatigue is making him not only incorporate automatisms, but also correct those “specific errors” that Ancelotti was having so many headaches (he cited them after the defeat against Barça in the Super Cup, after winning the Club World Cup…) during a course where the only defensive constant, until recently, was Militao. But Rüdiger, verbalized by Carletto , has signed up for the equation. “ He is always concentrated and focused. He can still improve with the ball, but defensively the team is more solid. Together with Militao they have given solidity to the center of the defense”, recognized the coach in the previous one against Barça. A game where you owe them appeared in the opposite area and not in your own. Ancelotti, by the way, reminded ’22 ′ that he must take care with the ball.