Asencio Ascension
Giving minutes to academy players has never been Ancelotti's priority, but one player deserves his consideration.
Pardon the tongue-twister in the title, but it must be said that Raúl Asencio’s name has been mentioned an awful lot since his side’s loss in the Supercopa.
Real Madrid suffered a second Clásico embarrassment of the season on Sunday, and Carlo Ancelotti was blamed for the result. Not only did his formation allow Barcelona to flaunt their strengths, but also certain personnel choices had a detrimental impact on Los Blancos’ performance.
Raúl Asencio could only sit and watch as Real Madrid conceded five goals in Saudi Arabia, with the 21-year-old defender only logging 38 minutes in his side's 5-2 defeat to Barcelona.
Real Madrid have had an injury-ridden campaign, especially across the back-line, but this opened the door for Real Madrid Castilla talent Raúl Asencio to debut in the first team. With Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, David Alaba and Aurélien Tchouaméni sidelined, Asencio played against Liverpool at Anfield, and caught the attention of many.
Despite his impressive start to life in senior football, Tchouaméni returned from injury and immediately took Asencio's spot in Real Madrid's backline, sending the talented youngster back to the bench.
Asencio only got the chance to play against the Catalans for just over half an hour this past weekend, and in that time, he misplaced just one pass and won all of his tackles and duels. The game was already lost and most of Barcelona’s goals had already gone in, yet despite the warning signs being present from the opening minute, it took almost an hour for Ancelotti to bring on Asencio.
The reason for this? You don’t have to do much investigative analysis of Ancelotti to find out why he hasn’t used his youngsters. Back in November, the Italian was asked about his reluctance to give Endrick and Arda Güler minutes:
"The objective is to turn the team's poor performances around, that is the priority. Not to give more minutes to one specfic player or another.”
Perhaps the display in Jeddah will show Ancelotti that it’s time to alter his perspective on the youth he has at his disposal. Otherwise, the team will continue to concede goals, all while a homegrown defender, who is both physical and intelligent, wastes away on the bench.
“For the team, for the club and for you fans, we will rise as we always have. Hala Madrid.”
That was Asencio’s social media message to the Real Madrid supporters after the game. Despite this confidence, Ancelotti still wants to bring in another defender in the transfer window, as he and his staff remain firm on their stance that young players must be eased in bit by bit so they’re not burnt by over-exposure too early on.
Despite the injuries to Alaba, Militão and Carvajal, Ancelotti doesn't have to look much further than what he already has. After recent expensive failures in the transfer market, president Florentino Pérez is determined not to spend on players that he does not believe are 100% worth it, which hopefully will open Ancelotti’s eyes to the gem that is waiting on the bench. Asencio deserves an ascension to the starting lineup, and that’s the bottom line.