Wednesday 16 November 2016 07:54, UK
Ahead of the Madrid derby on Saturday, Terry Gibson picked his combined Atletico-Real XI based on this season's form.
Atletico host Real on Saturday, live on Sky Sports 5 at 7.45pm, in what could be the last Madrid derby at the Vincente Calderon.
Gibson, speaking on this week's La Liga Weekly Podcast, has chosen six players from Atletico and five from Real, and has given a convincing case for his omission of Cristiano Ronaldo...
Formation: 4-3-3, three central midfielders.
Jan Oblak (Atletico) goes in goal. Keylor Navas and Kiko Casilla have shared the job this season, and I think Casilla was actually unfortunate to be jettisoned as quickly as he was, having not made a mistake.
I've gone for Dani Carvajal (Real) at right-back over Juanfran. There's not much in that, but I've probably gone for younger legs.
I initially went for an Atletico back four and goalkeeper, but I'm going for Diego Godin (Atletico) and Sergio Ramos (Real). I don't think there is a centre-forward in the world that would have an easy time against these.
I've gone with Filipe Luis (Atletico) at left-back, in my personal opinion. He's good going forward, and is perhaps better defensively than Marcelo.
Toni Kroos (Real) has been fantastic this season and last season, along with Luka Modric (Real) as well, who you could say the exact same thing about him.
I've gone with Koke (Atletico) as the other central midfield player, again because of the injuries to those in both sides, these are the players who have played on a regular basis.
Gareth Bale (Real) wide on the right has been the pick of the bunch in terms of Real attacking players this season. Antoine Griezmann (Atletico) as the striker, who has the nod over Alvaro Morata and Karim Benzema, who have had the share of the duties at Real.
And then Yannick Carrasco (Atletico), who I said two or three weeks ago had been player of the season so far.
Ronaldo missed the first part of the season, and I know the Ronaldo fans are going to say he should be part of every team, and if I was picking the team on the last five years or even the last couple of years then he would have a case.
But we're talking mid-November of this season, and there isn't much doubt that his form has not been the same high standards he's set in the past.
I can't on one hand say two weeks ago that Carrasco has been player of the season, and then leave him out because Ronaldo has scored 2,000 goals in 300 matches in the past seven or eight years! It's purely based on this moment in time, and form this season.
