Centre-back has proven to be a real area of concern for Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti, who lost star defender Eder Militao to an ACL injury just 50 minutes into the current campaign.

The 31-year-old has missed Madrid's last three games with a groin injury but has made a light return to training in the past few days.

https://www.fotmob.com/embed/news/01hca0m3gmkp-Why-David-Alaba-has-withdrawn-from-international-duty

(After losing a game to a Serie B side) “He turned beet red, and sitting next to him was Adriano Galliani, wearing a bright yellow tie. Together they looked like a rainbow. Two days later, he came and asked us to forgive him, because he could never be mean through and through. He’s a teddy bear, deep down. The secret of our track record is the fact that he’s a regular guy.” This is a quote by Paolo Maldini, who wrote the foreword. He talks about how Ancelotti was a dear friend, in addition to being a coach. He says that Carletto was the wind that made him flutter!

He genuinely is one of the few people who comes across as super likeable. The yin to Ten Hags yang ,sorry not sorry. Perfect vibes for the Brazil managerial role and top 3 RM manager ever.

• Tchoumeni
• Camavinga
• Valverde
• Kroos
• Modric
• Ceballos

Don't think there's any argument against these guys. But then

• Bellingham
• Guler
• Brahim

Any of those could be counted as an attacker.

One of the negatives from Saturday’s game was Antonio Rüdiger picking up his fourth yellow card of the season, but Ancelotti was clear that he hadn’t spoken to the German about his discipline. He explained: “I haven’t spoken about this, I wouldn’t tell a player to think about suspensions. When he’s suspended, we’ll put somebody else in. We have many central defenders [laughs]. I laugh because Tchouameni doesn’t like playing central defence, which is a bit like Camavinga at left-back. One day we’ll have Tchouameni in central defence and Camavinga at left-back.”

Now which one of you mentioned playing with 11 goddamn midfielders, you happy, you jinxed it