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News
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Vinicius Jr OUT, Sesko IN: The five players Real Madrid MUST sign after Club World Cup humiliation
Analysis
Real Madrid have been eliminated from the Club World Cup in crushing fashion.
Champions League winners PSG pulverized Xabi Alonso's Los Blancos with a stunning 4-0 win in the Club World Cup semi-final.
Real Madrid were thoroughly dominated from first minute to last and only Thibaut Courtois' excellence and the searing New York heat slowed PSG's assault enough for the scoreline to remain respectable.
Current ETV
Vinicius Junior
F (CL), M (L)
Real Madrid
Vinicius Junior
F (CL), M (L)
Real Madrid
ETV Range
€91M - €111.2M
This coming after a season in which Madrid won no major trophies and were dominated by Barcelona, losing four straight times to their arch-rivals with an aggregate score of 16-7. In fact their 5-2 loss in the Spanish Supercup final was reminiscent of their loss to PSG, only that day a red card to Wojciech Szczesny was their saviour.
It was clear before the tournament but is abundantly so now: Real Madrid need reinforcements. The squad as currently built is not able to play the kind of football Xabi Alonso wants them to, and so more signings must arrive to enable those changes.
Madrid have already spent €117 million signing Dean Huijsen, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Franco Mastantuono, but more signings are still needed.
Who are those signings?
Centre-back: Piero Hincapie
Real Madrid's defence was absolutely embarrassing against PSG. Antonio Rudiger is a player of immense stature and reputation but he looks physically broken after holding the Madrid defence together almost single-handedly these last two years.
Raul Asencio is absolutely terrible. He's fast and can make last ditch tackles, that's honestly it. Neither he nor Rudiger could handle the PSG press and it was embarrassing how easily they were robbed.
Eder Militao is decent but his ligaments cannot be trusted. Same with David Alaba. And while there are actually talented young centre-backs coming out of La Fabrica, they're not ready for the first-team yet.
Dean Huijsen and Aurelien Tchouameni are out there by themselves. They need help!
Current ETV
Piero Hincapié
D (CL)
Bayer 04
Piero Hincapié
D (CL)
Bayer 04
ETV Range
€53.5M - €65.4M
That is why Madrid must once again raid Bayer Leverkusen, this time for their Ecuadorian centre-back Piero Hincapie. The 23 year-old left-footed defender is a perfect fit with Xabi Alonso's system having played it for two years in the Bundesliga.
Hincapie is a modern centre-back who would not only help Madrid do actual defending but he's quality on the ball and would help Los Blancos progress the ball with authority.
He'd cost around €70 million, which is definitely a lot, but Madrid cannot afford to wait a year for Ibrahima Konate to come on a free. They need help now.
Wing-back: Alvaro Carreras
Fran Garcia has had a good Club World Cup but it was clear against PSG that the truly elite level of the game may ask questions he does not have the answer for.
To that end; Alvaro Carreras of Benfica.
Current ETV
Álvaro Carreras
D (L)
Benfica
Álvaro Carreras
D (L)
Benfica
ETV Range
€36.9M - €45.1M
Carreras isn't that much more experienced than Garcia,. truth be told, but he is also a La Fabrica graduate and he has more of a physical ruggedness to him. Moreover he's actually put in good defensive displays against elite players (even Lamine Yamal!) to prove he has what it takes.
He'd cost around €50 million, but Alonso's system will not work without a dynamic wing-back who can handle himself defensively. That's not Fran Garcia, but it might be Alvaro Carreras!
Centre midfield: Angelo Stiller
In 2023 Real Madrid spent €103 million to sign English midfielder Jude Bellingham and he has been a sensational attacking engine. He scored 23 goals in his debut campaign and is a Steven Gerrard-esque force up and down the pitch.
There's just one problem: he's not good in actual central midfield.
STATS
Jude Bellingham
AM (C), M (CL)
Real Madrid
Jude Bellingham
AM (C), M (CL)
Real Madrid
When asked to play the role of an actual midfielder, Bellingham falls short. His game is the up-and-down, the vertical, which is great - but Xabi Alonso needs a midfielder who can also do the horizontal. Someone who is able to maintain possession, control the tempo of games and feed the attackers (like Bellingham) with robust through-passes.
He's been using Arda Guler in this role during the Club World Cup, but Arda Guler is a 10 who needs to play between the lines (how do you fit him into the same side as Bellingham playing Alonso's 3-4-1-2? Beats me!)
Luka Modric has just left the club and Dani Ceballos is the definition of mid.
Once again, Madrid must go to the Bundesliga. This time to Stuttgart for Angelo Stiller, a midfielder so good he comes approved by Toni Kroos!
Current ETV
Angelo Stiller
DM, M (C)
VfB Stuttgart
Angelo Stiller
DM, M (C)
VfB Stuttgart
ETV Range
€44.2M - €54M
Stiller isn't quite Kroos, for starters he lacks the Guardiola and Van Gaal education that Kroos got before joining Madrid. But he is a quality midfielder who can be trusted to run the show in midfield.
Stiller's progressive passing would be a godsend for the likes of Mbappe and Bellingham, not to mention finding Trent Alexander-Arnold in superb positions to cross.
It may be a while before Madrid see midfielders like Luka Modric and Toni Kroos again, but Angelo Stiller would be a huge step in the right direction for Los Blancos.
Striker: Benjamin Sesko
Gonzalo Garcia had a tremendous Club World Cup. The 21 year-old La Fabrica graduate scored 4 times in his 6 appearances out in the USA and really made a name for himself.
But when the chips were down against a genuinely good opponent like PSG, even with Willian Pacho and Lucas Hernandez missing, Gonzalo Garcia was nowhere to be found.
He will be an invaluable squad member for Los Blancos, for sure, but a starter? Someone to really get the best out of Kylian Mbappe? No.
STATS
Kylian Mbappé
F (C)
Real Madrid
Kylian Mbappé
F (C)
Real Madrid
Once again: Real Madrid must head back to the Bundesliga. Now we're in Leipzig and they're picking up Benjamin Sesko.
The 22 year-old Slovenian is enormous at 6'5 and possesses a cannon of a shot and is also superb at attacking crosses.
He's not an elite goalscorer. His highest ever season tally is 21 goals and his league high in a top division is 16 in the Austrian Bundesliga.
But at Madrid, that's not so bad. If all things are working as they should, Kylian Mbappe will bag you over 40 goals (like he did in his debut season) and Jude Bellingham, playing as an attacking midfielder, is good for over 20.
STATS
Benjamin Šeško
F (C)
RB Leipzig
Benjamin Šeško
F (C)
RB Leipzig
A striker who scores around 18-22 goals would do just fine for Los Blancos provided he can do all the more classic striker things like draw defenders away from Mbappe, play wall-passes back to Mbappe and make runs in behind to open up spaces for Mbappe.
Basically Real Madrid need Olivier Giroud, but as Giroud is 38 years-old, Sesko is the smart play. He has a sky-high ceiling if he can ever develop consistent finishing and is a terrifying physical mismatch vs. pretty much any defence. Imagine Sesko attacking Trent's crosses? It'd be mayhem!
Hugo Ekitike is another (Bundesliga-based) option for this role, and he's French too so chemistry with Mbappe is assured. But he's less proven and older than Sesko, so would present more of a risk. And given the fees likely to be involved in signing either striker, the less risk involved for Real Madrid, the better.
And how to fund all of these signings, given the total fee for all of them would surely approach €200 million?
Real Madrid should sell Vinicius Jr.
Time to say adios, Vini!
Signed as an 18 year-old, Madridistas have watched Vini grow from a wasteful prodigy into a genuine world-class winger.
He's won La Liga three times and the Champions League twice, scoring in each final. By any measure, he has been a triumph.
But the arrival of Mbappe has been a problem for Vini because the two men are at their best when they play in the same space.
While they were able to freestyle it during Carlo Ancelotti's reign, Xabi Alonso's tactical demands are much more rigorous and only really leave room for one megastar who doesn't do any defensive work.
STATS
Vinicius Junior
F (CL), M (L)
Real Madrid
Vinicius Junior
F (CL), M (L)
Real Madrid
It's a two striker system and one of those strikers is going to be Mbappe and the other, as discussed, should be an actual striker like Ekitike or Sesko.
Vini is too highly paid and well regarded to be a sub or a back-up. And given his contract expires in two years, now is the right time to part ways and build around Mbappe and what Alonso needs.
Where does Vini go? Well, it would have to be a club from the Saudi Pro League. Someone like Al-Hilal or Al-Nassr have tried to sign Vini in the past and could surely be tempted into making another bid now.
A sale of over €100 million would be a massive boost to Real Madrid's financial state and would give them the clout they need to make the above signings and reshape the team in Xabi Alonso's image.
Would it work? Who can say? But it's their only hope of hauling back the juggernauts of PSG and Barcelona (not to mention Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal).
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