Real Madrid travel to Betis desperate to find their form

Both sides will be aiming to bounce back in this fixture after disappointing losses last weekend.

Neither of these two sides have been able to find consistency this season, although that’s much more of a worry for Real Madrid than Real Betis due to their status as one of the top clubs in Europe. Betis suffered a shock 2-1 loss away to bottom side Huesca last week, while Los Blancos were beaten 2-0 at home to Real Sociedad.

Betis have been average at home this season, picking up only 15 points from nine games, although they’ll take heart from Real’s poor away record. This is a big opportunity for Los Verdiblancos to make up ground on their opponents, who are four points above them in the table.

Quique Setien has switched between a 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 this season in order to bring the best out of certain attackers. The lack of a prolific striker has hindered them significantly. Against Madrid, Setien is likely to opt for a 3-5-2, which will allow Betis to match up with their opponents, who typically play a 4-3-3 under Santiago Solari, in midfield.

Junior Firpo’s injury is a huge blow due to the attacking threat he has provided in the left wing-back position and Sidnei is also out which weakens the back line because of the consistency he provides. Andres Guardado and William Carvalho are likely to both start with one of either Sergio Canales or Giovani Lo Celso alongside them. Antonio Sanabria and Loren should be leading the line as they can trouble a leaky Real Madrid defense with their movement.

Real Madrid have a significant injury list as Gareth Bale, Thibaut Courtois, Toni Kroos, Marco Asensio, Mariano Diaz and Marcos Llorente are all unavailable for this match. Lucas Vazquez will also be serving a suspension for this match so Vinicius Junior could start as well as Isco who has been mostly restricted to appearances from the bench due to not being favoured by Solari. Isco would play better coming inside off the left-wing due to the space it would afford Marcelo, but that is Vinicius’ best position so Solari has a problem to solve.

Keylor Navas, Casemiro and Dani Ceballos are more than adequate replacements for Courtois, Llorente and Kroos, although the German’s ball retention ability will be missed, especially if Betis opt to press high. However, Setien’s men showed against Barcelona that they can be versatile as they were able to dictate the tempo of the game at times while also being able to counter ruthlessly so they can take advantage of Real’s high defensive line.