Alvaro Arbeloa holds crisis meeting with Real Madrid

 There has been a lot of noise generated around the club this season throughout an up and down campaign.

In January of this year, former Liverpool player Alvaro Arbeloa was appointed as Real Madrid head coach after Xabi Alonso left the club by mutual consent.

Xabi Alonso, who was only in charge of Los Blanco for eight months, left after losing to Barcelona in the Super Cup and trailing behind the Catalans by four points in La Liga at the time of his sacking.

Arbeloa has since steadied the ship, guiding Real Madrid to within a point of Barcelona in the title race and oversaw a convincing round of 16 first leg victory against Manchester City last week that has all but confirmed their place in the next round thanks to a Federico Valverde hat-trick.

Despite Arbeloa being regarded highly within the club, both for his development of youth players during his time working in the youth set-up, as well as his ability to turn things around for the club this season, he was never viewed as a long-term replacement for Alonso.

Real Madrid have reportedly contacted Unai Emery and Mauricio Pochettino’s camps in recent weeks, to get an idea of who their manager could be next season.

Whilst results have slowly turned in Real Madrid’s favour, but it hasn’t always looked so positive for the La Liga side this campaign, with performances showing a lack of consistency for most of the season.

A big reason for that is the injury crisis the club find themselves in.

Yesterday, Real Madrid secured a resounding victory over Elche, winning 4-1 thanks to goals from Antonio Rudiger, Federico Valverde, Dean Huijsen and Arda Guler.

But going into the game, 11 players made up Real Madrid’s injury list.

As a result, Arbeloa has understandably become wary of overworking the key members of his team.

According to MARCA, before the game the head coach held an emergency meeting with several of his key players including Tchouameni, Rudiger, Valverde and Vincius.

The aim of the meeting was to understand the physical condition of his players and make decisions on who to play because of that.

The report from MARCA detailed that the response was clear; the players remained committed to the team and understand the critical moment of the season they are in.

Approaching such a key part of the season, Alvaro Arbeloa had to make sure his players could maintain their fitness with the second leg against Manchester City and the derby against Atletico Madrid on the horizon.

The report goes on to state that the meeting was held with the intention of protecting his players, but Arbeloa remains in fear that his injury list will grow.

The fear is justified, with key players for Arbeloa’s side currently sidelined.

The players that currently make up Real Madrid’s treatment room are Raul Asencio, Ferland Mendy, David Alaba, Alvaro Carreras, Rodrygo, Kylian Mbappe, Dani Ceballos, Joan Martinez, Jude Bellingham, Eder Militao and Victor Valdepenas.