Who should Real Madrid get in and kick out in January? | OneFootball

Following the greatest season in club history, 2017/2018 has not exactly gone according to plan for Real Madrid.

The champions of Spain, Europe and the world sit fourth in LaLiga — 14 points behind their rivals Barcelona — and they also face a difficult Champions League Round of 16 tie agains Paris Saint-Germain.

But here’s a secret: The squad is not that bad. In fact it’s very good and not radically different to the group that won four trophies last season.

Yes, Madrid have some long-term problems to think about as some of their key players age but January is not the time to do. They will have some injured stars returning for the second half of the season and others who will find form again.

Here’s what Madrid should do in January.

IN

Striker

The summer departures of Álvaro Morata and Mariano Díaz have proven to be more impactful than Madrid might have imagined. Karim Benzema has struggled to find the net and the lack of competition up top has surely not helped.

Top strikers are notoriously difficult to find — particularly in January — but Madrid would be wise to look at imitating what Bayern Munich did with Sandro Wagner. Signing an experienced, competent goalscorer with different attributes to Benzema could add another dimension to the dynamics of Madrid’s attack, in the same way that loans for Javier Hernández and Emmanuel Adebayor did in recent years.

Two very interesting shouts could be Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud or Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge.

OUT

Marcos Llorente (Loan)

Like so many at Real Madrid in recent years, Marcos Llorente is a very promising prospect but he simply can’t get enough games at the club. He’s stuck behind possibly the finest midfield trio in world football at the moment.

Having come up through the academy, he’s Madrid through and through and the type of player that the fans would like to see succeed. It’s worth loaning him out in January so that he can continue his development and then re-evaluating the situation in the summer.

Fábio Coentrão

Fábio Coentrão has found his happy place again at Sporting, where he is currently on loan. The Portuguese clearly has a very limited future at the Santiago Bernabéu and the time to make a permanent sale is now, while he’s playing well and his value is as high as it’s going to be.