After a hard fought win against Athletic Bilbao this weekend, Real Madrid will be visiting Cultural Leonesa in the midweek for their Copa Del Rey fixture at the Estadio Municipal Reino de Leon.
Real will be a pretty easy win against a lower league side, however, it is worth noting that Cultural Leonesa have won all of their last 5 games scoring 15 goals and conceding only 3. Madrid, on the other hand, have won 3 games and drawn 2 in their last 5 games scoring 16 goals and conceding 6 with a comparatively better back line.
However, with most of the Madrid players in good touch, Zidane wouldn’t expect any kind of glitch in moving forward. The only problem would be Zidane not able to rest much of first team players owing to the injuries the team is dipped in now.
They are without the trio of Casemiro, Luka Modric and James Rodriguez due to their injuries. Sergio Ramos is out until November as a result of a knee sprain.
Defence
With their next game at Alaves in the La Liga, Zidane is likely to rest to his number one goalkeeper, Keylor Navas. Kiko Casilla is expected to start between the stick in the midweek. With his experience at the age of 30 and already having 6 appearances for the team, he looks a safe option.
Zidane might play Danilo to rest his first choice right back Daniel Carvajal at the back. Apart from that, the manager would opt to rest Raphael Varane to play Nacho Fernandez at the centre to partner with Pepe. Marcelo would take his place at the left flank of the defence as Fabio Coentrao is out.
Midfield
Real Madrid’s midfield is highly plagued due to the absence of Luka Modric, Casemiro, and Lucas Silva. Although Zidane still has a pretty good midfield in the trio of Kovačić, Kroos, and Isco, who have been pretty consistent in causing trouble in the attacking third with their passes, he will have to be pretty careful with them not to get injured in the midweek.
Attack
With options like Alvaro Morata, who has been scoring week in and week out coming off the bench, he has surely earned the manager’s confidence for starting the match. Zidane also has a decent forward in Lucas Vasquez and Ariano Diaz, who although are yet to open their score sheet this season, are good to start.
Zidane could still opt for Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale on the flanks.
