Madrid –
Start Marco Asensio from Real Madrid not running smoothly. He has never been started as a starter, and his playing time has been limited so far.
Asensio was late to join the Madrid squad this season. As of early August, he was still with the Spanish national team at the Olympics, being one of three senior players brought to Tokyo.
A week after the Olympics, Asensio immediately played for Madrid in the opening weekend of the Spanish League. He only came off in the last two minutes against Alaves, which Los Blancos won 4-1.
After that, Asensio still got a chance to appear, but from the bench and only about half an hour at most. In the last two matches, he was ‘only’ included as a buy-in against Inter Milan in the Champions League and sat on the bench against Valencia.
In total, Asensio has only appeared for 68 minutes of the 6 matches that Madrid have played. This condition is reported by Marca to make Asensio feel uncomfortable. Moreover, he missed a number of offers from other clubs last summer in order to stay at the club Madrid.
Not only rarely does he play, he is also tried to play in various positions by the coach Carlo Ancelotti, starting from the winger which is his original position, then the central midfielder, to the attacking midfielder.
In fact, lately he has rarely played in positions other than winger. But seeing the abundant stock of wingers (Eden Hazard, Vinicius Junior, Gareth Bale, Rodrygo, to Lucas Vazquez), plus a short pre-season together Madrid, it is reasonable when it is not yet the main choice.
Ancelotti insists he has no problem with Asensio and playtime for him will come. Asensio himself reportedly tried to respond to this situation positively.
“It’s normal for players to be unhappy because they don’t play often. If Marco Asensio or Luka Jovic isn’t happy because of the lack of playing time, then that’s normal, it’s good,” Ancelotti said ahead of Real Mallorca, quoted by Marca.
“But Asensio, Isco and Jovic have been training well. They will get to play. I have to evaluate the condition of the players who have already played. I’m thinking of doing a rotation, but need to see the training session first on Tuesday.”
“But it’s true that we are thinking of doing a number of rotations. It is difficult at the moment to determine who will start,” explained Ancelotti.
Madrid will face Mallorca on Thursday (23/9) early morning WIB, and it is worth waiting for whether Asensio will be used from the start or back on the bench.
(adp/rin)
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