No one doubts that Marcelo Vieira is a living history of Real Madrid, the biggest club in history. His 12 years in the organization merengue and his enviable crop of titles makes him a true legend of Real Madrid, in the best left side of his story without any discussion.
However, over the course of the last season we have watched with sadness as that great player has faded into a shadow of what he once was. A simple and lamentable sketch of Marcelo that we all know and love.
The once best left-back in the world has been reduced to a phantasmagorical version of himself, which instead of being the nightmare of rival defenses, has become a nightmare for Real Madrid fans every time he plays as a starter.
To say that Marcelo is not the best side in defensive facets would not be discovering anything new. Throughout his career he has always been criticized that his band was usually a free access highway for rival attackers. But all that was always forgotten when we saw him galloping the side as nobody, in very fast transitions offensive, combining by heart with Cristiano Ronaldo and with the rest of his teammates, entering the area as a striker, being that key that unlocked the rival defenses when the game got difficult.
I find it impressive to see how that player who squandered talent has been transformed into this unfortunate version of himself. And now it is not even incorporated into the attack with property and criteria as we were accustomed. When we see that Marcelo is not going to attack and is not deep, we realize that something happens with him, that he is not happy.
It is undeniable that the Brazilian has shown a very poor performance throughout the season and to see him in the starting lineup is practically saying that Real Madrid plays with one player less, since it is not influential in one area or the other.
And for the bad luck of our protagonist we must add the irruption of the young Sergio Reguilón, who has become the holder of the position for Santiago Solari. The merengue squad has known how to take advantage of Marcelo's low hours in order to take advantage of the opportunities received and demonstrate what he is capable of. And unfortunately for Marcelo, Reguilón has proven to be better all season, both defensively and offensively.
Since the departure of Zinedine Zidane from the merengue bench, it seems that something had broken inside Marcelo. It has also been clear that the Brazilian is the member of the squad that has most resented the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo who, in addition to being his personal friend, was his ideal partner in offensive work. The truth is that Marcelo is a player that depends on the associative game, therefore when he played with a predator of the area as Cristiano Ronaldo, a forward with unbelievable desmarques, all his skills were exponentiated to a level never before seen in any other left side in the history.
But if the current level of Marcelo is sad and regrettable, even worse is the attitude assumed by a certain part of the Madrid fans against the Brazilian star. It is true that Marcelo is going through the worst football moment of his career, but it is illogical and completely stupid to want to withdraw a player who over time has shown a superlative talent, well above average. It is naive to think that a player of only 30 years is no longer useful. It is ridiculous to think that Marcelo, a player who has not been given anything at Real Madrid and that he has earned everything he has, is unable to return to his best form and remain decisive for the team. It is completely ignorant to disparage Marcelo in this way, when all of life has been broken his as* for Real Madrid and to defend its values and interests. A legend like Marcelo only needs the blink of an eye to return to be everything we expect from him. Solari knows all this and that is why he has always trusted him and that he can recover it for the good of the team.
At the end of the season we will see if this was possible or if the Brazilian should look for new horizons to be able to reconnect with himself. I feel that the latter is inevitable and the most necessary if we want Marcelo to have a farewell to the height of what his legend and his legacy require. Otherwise he will end up fighting with everyone and unfortunately he will go out the back door of the Bernabéu like so many others who preceded him.
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