Real Madrid took care of business again this past Saturday night with a 4-1 victory over Espanyol, overcoming a 1-0 deficit in the 54th minute to score four unanswered, with Vinicius Junior coming off the bench to lift the Merengues to a win.
Rodrygo Goes had another Man of the Match display for Real Madrid, while Endrick and Kylian Mbappe also had strong performances for a Real Madrid attack that is starting to fire on all cylinders.
With better luck finishing in front of goal, especially on the part of Mbappe, Real Madrid could start putting up seven or eight goals on teams like they used to during the peak of the Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale days.
Unfortunately, one of the Real Madrid superstars will likely be out against Deportivo Alaves in LaLiga this coming Tuesday, as attacking midfielder Jude Bellingham aggravated a shoulder injury and is now a doubt to play.
Meanwhile, Endrick, who shined again off the bench against Espanyol, is due for a start. Coming into the weekend, the Spanish press indicated that Endrick would start either against Espanyol or Alaves.
Since he didn’t start against Espanyol but played so well again, the Brazilian phenom is now expected to get his chance against the stingy Alaves, and most Real Madrid fans are vociferously calling for Carlo Ancelotti to give the game-changing Palmeiras product his shot.
There’s no need to risk anything with Bellingham, who is arguably the best player in the world, as Real Madrid should be able to beat Alaves without him.
Furthermore, Endrick is so good that putting him in the starting lineup as a striker and maneuvering the formation around to, say, place Rodrygo as a 10 for Jude shouldn’t cause too much of a drop-off either, especially against a team like Alaves where a more attacking lineup may be preferred anyway.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.