Pablo GarcaMARCA
Zinedine Zidane has recently prioritized results over fitness, opting not to rotate his Real Madrid squad as usual and instead prefer more or less the same team.
This team stability made it possible Real Madrid to get out of their crisis, beating Sevilla, Borussia Monchengladbach, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Club in consecutive games.
ZidaneIts policy has come at the expense of its Plan B, which includes some fringe players who have not been given regular time in recent games.
One of those fringe players is Marcelo, who has watched Ferland Mendy start each of those last four wins.
Clearly, the Brazilian has fallen out of favor in the big games this season, playing only one Real Madridmatches in the Champions League group stage.
But the last campaign Marcelo would still regularly start games, even though he was not the first choice left back. This was not the case this season.
Mendy, meanwhile, continues to justify his selection ahead Marcelo. The Frenchman still has not lost a LaLiga Santander match he started for Los Blancos.
Until the loss of Alaves, Mendy and Marcelo had rotated in the league, but since then the latter falls into the same category as Eder Militao, Isco and Marco Asensio, who have also seen a reduction in their minutes on the field.