Isco and Casemiro are likely to return to the Real Madrid starting lineup when they meet Leganes at Estadio Municipal de Butarque on Monday.
Real Madrid will be hoping to continue their winning momentum when they take the short trip to take on Leganes at Estadio Municipal de Butarque on Monday night. Zinedine Zidane though, is missing a few key players ahead of the game.
? Here’s our 19-man squad for tomorrow’s #RMLiga clash against @CDLeganes! #RMLiga pic.twitter.com/04LHgx6mb5
— Real Madrid C.F. ???? (@realmadriden) April 14, 2019
Thibaut Courtois remains unavailable for Real Madrid, even though he has returned to training, with Zidane providing an update on the Belgian shot stopper during his pre-match press conference, iterating that he is still not fully fit.
“He’s not feeling right, it’s not just one bit of discomfort, he’s got two or three issues. It’s more than one problem and when that’s the case it’s best not to take any risks.”
With Courtois still not ready to return, Keylor Navas will continue to feature between the sticks when Real Madrid meet Leganes. In defence, Sergio Ramos is a major absentee, with the club captain recovering from a calf injury.
In his absence, Nacho will continue to partner Raphael Varane at the heart of the defence, with Marcelo another certain starter in the left-back slot. On the opposite flank, the match could see Dani Carvajal make his return, with the Spaniard being picked in the travelling squad by Zidane.
Carvajal though, is only likely to be eased back into the team, so as to not risk a recurrence of his injury. As a result, Alvaro Odriozola should be the right-back once again for Real Madrid. Meanwhile, Toni Kroos has surprisingly missed out, although Zidane provided clarity on his omission.
“Kroos has a touch of gastroenteritis. He had a bad night, he didn’t come to training today and we’ll have to see how things progress between today and tomorrow, but he wasn’t well enough to come in today.”
In Kroos’ absence, Isco will continue in the three-man midfield axis, with Luka Modric picking himself despite his indifferent form. The choice for the holding midfield role will be a toss-up between Casemiro and Marcos Llorente, with Casemiro likely to get the nod.
Up ahead in attack, there is no looking past Gareth Bale, Marco Asensio and Karim Benzema at the present moment, although Bale needs to be more consistent. If either Bale or Asensio is dropped Lucas Vazquez can be expected to start, but the Real Madrid attack should remain unchanged.
