Real Madrid's chances of winning the league are getting slimmer every day as Barcelona doesn't slip once, despite Lamine Yamal getting injured, but they need to keep going despite knowing they will end the season trophyless. Now, most of their players are looking ahead, to the World Cup, and Dani Carvajal, captain of the Spanish team, knows that playing good games with Madrid is the only option he has left to make it into Luis de la Fuente's squad.
That's way many people see strange that coach Álvaro Arbeloa isn't giving Carvajal many minutes with the team, relegated to a substitute to Trent Alexander-Arnold. Last Tuesday, after a 2-1 victory over Alavés, Arbeloa was asked why he wasn't giving Carvajal more minutes of playtime. "I have 20 or 23 players. I think any Real Madrid player has a chance of going to the World Cup, and I'm going to think about what's best for my team", a response he now considers "rather curt and serious", but because it was to a question her considered it was out of place, and denied any animosity towards Carvajal.
"It wasn't a curt response regarding Dani Carvajal. You can look at all my responses when I've spoken about him. You can ask all my players how I talk about Carvajal in front of the group", he said on Thursday morning, in a press conference before upcoming match against Betis on Friday. "They're trying to unfairly assign me a role with Carvajal.
We share a locker room and position, and despite what many people are saying, I've always had a good relationship with him, I've always treated him with affection. Anyone who thinks I make the line-ups for personal reasons must be someone who would do that. I find it hard to believe that any coach in the world doesn't make line-ups for footballing reasons", he added (via EFE).
Why do Carvajal and Arbeloa don't get along?
Some people are assuming that Arbeloa is choosing to bench Carvajal due to the rivalry between the two players, who played three seasons together in Real Madrid, between 2013/14 and 2015/16. Despite winning two Champions League together, both played in the same position, right back, and Carvajal ended up taking a starting role and pushing Arbeloa to the bench. Arbeloa ended up his career playing only three matches at West Ham United the following season.
Barely without options to fight for LaLiga, the relationship between Arbeloa and Carvajal is the last entertaining narrative for Real Madrid in the final month of the season. Do you think Carvajal will be called for what most likely would be his final World Cup?