Take Kubo and Kang-in Lee arrived at the quarries of Barcelona and Valencia, respectively, with ten years. They were accompanied by families convinced that Europe opened up a much more hopeful sporting future for them than Japan or Korea. State-of-the-art football was here. This practice, today prohibited by FIFA, was a widespread custom among European clubs, many of them punished for violating the legislation on minors. Those two promises of Asian luxury play today in Mallorca and they are not even main players in the squadproof that the wind deflects allegedly accurate shots in football (follow the match live on AS.com).
Take Kubo is, according to artificial intelligence data recorded by Olocip, the Mallorca’s eighth player by performance and offers worse data than two years ago, on his first assignment. In that slump weigh, without a doubt, the two months he spent injured in a knee and that left him out in eight games. Only in one of them could Mallorca win.
Kubo arrived at Madrid a year after Vinicius. He had spent three seasons at Barça before FIFA forced him to return to Japan. Once he came of age, the white club offered him better prospects. Almost three years later, his silken left foot has not finished convincing in Mallorca, Vila-real, or Getafe. With a contract until 2024, Madrid should nationalize Vinicius to enroll him next season and not exceed the quota of non-EU citizens. The matter is not decided. Kubo, so far, has only given money. He cost two million and the loans have left Madrid more than double. For him, the game is a catwalk. He has already paraded through it five times (one win, two draws and three losses) and has been left alone in the details.
Kubo, in a Mallorca training.
MIQUEL A. BORRAS
Problems in both areas
Still, it has fared better than Kang-in Lee, who has not started since January 2. Peter Lim’s whim for what he could generate economically in the Far East, none of the Valencia coaches who treated him (Marcelino, Celades, Voro, Javi Gracia…) knew how to find a future for it. He left free last summer, a year before the end of his contract.
Today he will not start in a weakened Mallorca in both areas. Only Cádiz and Alavés score fewer goals, only Levante concede more, although Maffeo, according to Olocip data, is the right back with the best performance in LaLiga and Valjent, the fourth player with the best defensive performance. The team has four consecutive losses and touches the relegation zone, but in the club they still believe that Luis García will get them out of this. In fact, Mallorca is the only one of the last seven teams in the table that has not yet changed coach despite the fact that the results are very close to those of relegation two seasons ago, with Vicente Moreno.
At the moment, the four winter signings have not reactivated the team. Sergio Ricoon loan from PSG, he has conceded 12 goals in six games and Muriqi offers better sensations than marksmanship (two goals). Grenier arrived this very week.
In VigoLuis García, who will sit on the bench again after completing his two-game suspension, tried for the first time a defense with three center backs. It didn’t work out and he isn’t expected to repeat it today against Madrid still under the effects of the game against PSG.
unbeatable occasion
The meeting is between the wars, that of the French and the Classic that is coming, but Ancelotti is to change little and in the club there is a bad experience in Son Moix two years ago in similar circumstances. On the eve of a crucial Champions League match against Galatasaray, Zidane opted for a massive rotation. It went wrong for him, the team lost 1-0 and many of those that afternoon paid for it: Odriozola, James, Jovic, Vinicius himself… It was one of those defeats that wakes up, because from then on, Madrid chained 21 games without losing and ended up winning the League.
Casemiro, who returns, with Benzema.
realmadrid.com
That said, some tweaking is expected. Casemiro and Mendy are back and it is possible that Ancelotti will repeat with Valverde for Kroos, used as an emergency on Wednesday fresh from injury. Rodrygo could also start, much more productive than Asensio against PSG, and who knows if Militao may rest, threatened with suspension, which ended up very touched in the Champions League.
Madrid, in any case, cannot neglect the League, where four duels still await them with their closest rivals (Barça, Sevilla, Atlético and Betis). It seems, therefore, an excellent opportunity to distance Lopetegui’s men, who tied with Rayo, by eight points, an almost decisive advantage. For this he is obliged to monitor the Balearic expertise in strategy. 50% of Mallorca’s goals came from set pieces. That looks like your door to salvation.