José Mourinho’s ‘main doubt’ for Real Madrid XI vs Barcelona

Real Madrid head coach José Mourinho remains undecided on the starting pairing in one key area of his XI for the club’s upcoming showdown with Barcelona.

The area in question? The heart of defence.

Real Madrid are of course primed to play out the most high-profile fixture of their season to date on Sunday evening, when they make the trip to Catalunya’s capital for a La Liga meeting with arch rivals Barcelona.

Fall to defeat, and Los Blancos will slip a full nine points off the pace of Hansi Flick’s rampant table-toppers…

In turn, it should come as little surprise to hear of José Mourinho still working on piecing together the perfect line-up to stifle Barca’s prolific frontline at the Camp Nou.

As per a report from Marca, the Portuguese tactician’s main headache comes in central defence, ‘where Mourinho still needs to decide which pairing offers the best guarantees’.

Dean Huijsen, Ibrahima Konaté and Antonio Rüdiger are currently fighting over two spots in Real Madrid’s backline, with Éder Militão not yet considered ready to start in such an intense fixture.

Conor Laird – GSFN