On March 11, the ‘Asencio case’. The central defender was dropped from the eleven against City and the decision of Arbeloa The player didn’t like it at all, and he would end up blaming the coach days later. For Asenciothe effort he made to be against Celta three days before the aforementioned Champions League match deserved the reward of a title that Arbeloa handed over Huijsen. Madrid arrived in Vigo broken in the center of the defense: Military and Praise They were injured and Huijsensanctioned. Asencio was carrying a severe cervical contusion suffered against Benfica, but he braved it (as with the fissure in his tibia, with which he took the maximum risk thinking about the team) and signed up for the Balaídos clash, partnering with Rüdiger. However, the youth player would end up on the bench and without minutes against City.
The tension between the coach and the player would skyrocket days later. After being substituted against City, Asencio was going to start against Elche. However, on the same day of the game, shortly before the team’s usual morning activation session, Asencio showed up at Arbeloa’s office accompanied by a doctor. He did it to inform the technician that he had some slight muscle discomfort and that he did not feel fit to play. A circumstance that Arbeloa did not like at all. The player’s anger at being dropped from the eleven against City was now added to some last-minute discomfort.
Rüdiger’s anger
The tension was evident in that face to face. Even more so when Arbeloa communicated to Rüdiger‘disconnected’ from the game because he was going to rest thinking about City’s return to the Etihad, which had to play against Elche (Militao and Alaba were still injured). A change of plan that bothered the German, who was extremely strict with his planning and with his match preparation protocol. He didn’t like joining the game at the last minute, especially because it meant pushing himself much more than was advisable given his physical circumstances. Arbeloa and he are taking care of their efforts in detail and this made everything blow up, with the risk that this entailed. The ‘Asencio case’ jumped from Arbeloa’s office to the locker room.
Asencio was left out of the squad against Elche, he also did not travel to Manchester and would repeat his absence in the derby. All this despite training normally on a daily basis. Asencio trained, but the games came and he was left out of the squad. The reason? He had not apologized to the team for making Arbeloa ugly. his decision to sit him on the bench against City. The coach is very strict with indiscipline (they should tell Trent and his substitute in the derby for being late). And not only that, he considers them a locker room issue, not something personal between the player and the coach. Asencio had apologized to Arbeloabut the coach asked him to do it in front of the group. As long as he did not do so, he would not be summoned.
Final apology to the group
The situation became more serious than expected because Asencio did not consider that he had to apologize to his teammates. And he didn’t do it at first. “Does anyone have anything to say?”Arbeloa asked at the end of one of the conversations before training to give rise to Asencio’s apology. The center-back lowered his head and did not speak.. Without forgiveness, he accumulated one dismissal after another.
The problem is that Asencio’s absence began to be related on the networks to his nightlife. Attention was diverted to an alleged lack of professionalism and the rumor had to be stopped. Asencio knew that his strange case was already in the air and that after the break it would be looked at closely whether or not he returned to a call. So he decided to settle the matter and apologize to the locker room. because of what happened with Arbeloa after City and his subsequent last-minute loss against Elche. After apologizing, Asencio returned to the list against Mallorca and repeated against Bayern. Of course, both without minutes. Full stop to the ‘soap opera’.