Pepe Injury Hands Raphael Varane Chance to Prove Worth to Real Madrid

It wasn’t just the egos of the Real Madrid players that were bruised by their Copa del Rey elimination at the hands of Atletico Madrid on Thursday. In an often physical encounter, Pepe suffered a rib injury that forced him to leave the field just before the hour mark.

The club soon released a statement confirming that the Portugal international had suffered bruised ribs, with AS (h/t ESPN FC), suggesting that he will likely be out of action for two to three weeks.

But Pepe’s night had already been one to forget even before its premature end. He was easily beaten after recklessly stepping forward to challenge Antoine Griezmann in the build-up to Atletico’s opening goal and was then, a little more excusably, left eating grass as Torres turned inside him for the second.

He wasn’t, however, the only Madrid centre-back to endure a difficult evening. Sergio Ramos gave the ball away with a sloppy pass into midfield on the second Atletico goal and was frequently ragged in his defensive work.

Raphael Varane was the man who replaced Pepe on Thursday, and he will now have an opportunity to prove to Carlo Ancelotti that he is worthy of doing so on a more regular basis.

Per WhoScored, the 21-year-old has made 12 starts (and 15 appearances) in all competitions so far this season. He has, however, usually been employed to cover for the absence through injury of one or the other of Madrid’s regular centre-backs.

Even when he has performed well over a period of one or two matches, he has again found himself relegated to the bench following the return of the absent party. For instance, he put in a solid display against Espanyol last weekend—with the blog Managing Madrid giving him an 8/10 rating—but was replaced by Ramos on Thursday.

Varane is already a regular at international level but Ancelotti appears reticent to break up Madrid’s long-standing central partnership of Pepe and Ramos. It seems that it will take more than a couple of competent performances to convince him that Varane deserves a place in the starting XI ahead of either of them.

The Frenchman is clearly valued by the higher-ups at the Bernabeu, who handed a new contract through to 2020 earlier this season.

Per AS, Ancelotti recently responded to speculation linking the centre-back to Bayern Munich by asserting that “Varane will be a Madrid player for a long time.” But with Chelsea also consistently linked (most recently by Jack de Menezes of The Independent) with a player who flourished under current Blues boss Jose Mourinho in Madrid, he may need to back up his words by showing more faith in the 21-year-old.

With Pepe fast approaching 32, the most logical approach is surely to move forward with a partnership of Ramos and Varane.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

For Varane’s part, all he can do is make the most of opportunities when they arise and cut out the little errors that still occasionally plague his game. It can be difficult to perform to a high standard without regular playing time, but he must do his utmost to ensure that he is physically and mentally ready for any chances that come his way.

Madrid do not have a huge amount of options at centre-back—with Nacho Fernandez the only other alternative—but in Pepe’s absence, Varane should be capable of covering a fixture list whose density was greatly eased by the club’s exit from the Copa del Rey.

Had they progressed to a quarter-final tie against Barcelona, Madrid would have faced a further three consecutive weeks of weekend and midweek fixtures. If they had then beaten Barcelona to go through to the semi-finals, that would have been extended to five weeks.

As it is, they now face just three very winnable matches over the next few weeks—three fixtures in which Varane will hope to prove that the time is right for Ancelotti to look to the future and make him a permanent fixture alongside Ramos at the heart of the Madrid defence.