Real Madrid's Squad to face Villarreal is Revealed by Club

On Saturday night, at 21:00 CEST, Real Madrid will host Villarreal on match day eight of the La Liga season, three weeks since the last game where the team fell to a 2-0 defeat away to Atletico Madrid in the derby. 

Despite being so early in the season, the importance of the game cannot really be overstated. If the team drops points and Barcelona win their game at home to Getafe, there could already be a seven or eight point gap at the top of the league. Even at this stage, that feels borderline insurmountable. So it is an absolutely huge game. 

For the task at hand, Jose Mourinho has called up the following squad; Courtois, Lunin, Mestre; Alexander-Arnold, Dumfries, Konate, Rudiger, Carreras, Cucurella; Camavinga, Tchouameni, Pitarch, Silva, Valverde, Bellingham, Guler; Diomande, Diaz, Espi, Mbappe, Endrick, Vinicius. 

The most notable inclusion is perhaps Federico Valverde, who was on the end of a nasty challenge in the Madrid derby, and did not go on international duty with the Uruguay national team, whom he captains. There are also inclusions for Ibrahima Konate and Kylian Mbappe, despite the former pulling out of international duty, and the latter picking up an injury scoring against Turkey in the UEFA Nations League. 

It is a very good job that Konate is called up. With Dean Huijsen suspended after his red card against Atletico, and with Raul Asencio and Eder Militao currently out injured, there was a fear that a 33 year old Antonio Rudiger would be the only recognised central defender involved. Fortunately, that is not the case, and immediately after this game, Huijsen will be available for selection. 

Other than that, looks pretty good. It is crucial that star players such as Jude Bellingham managed to get through the international break unscathed. Four games in such a short space of time is a pretty brutal schedule to get through, but Mbappe was the only player to pick up an injury, and well we now know he is fully fit and available for this game. So all good on that front. 

Someone like Bernardo Silva only played a total of 10 minutes during the break, so he is essentially fully fresh and ready to go, and more so for Aurelien Tchouameni, who was not included in the maiden France squad of Real Madrid legend, Zinedine Zidane. So that could end up being an advantage on the day. Let's see.