Real Madrid head coach Xabi Alonso has a huge selection call to make ahead of his team's Club World Cup semifinal clash against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday.
The Basque manager, a Madrid midfield legend from his Champions League-winning days, took over from Carlo Ancelotti at the end of the last European season and has done fine work in getting his new employers to the last four of FIFA's new summer tournament.
Though it's a team effort, a lot of that is down to the punt that Alonso took on academy product Gonzalo Garcia, who has scored important goals against the likes of Juventus and Borussia Dortmund in the knockout rounds to put himself in line to win the Golden Boot.
The youngster's seizing of the moment is in many ways down to Kylian Mbappe and Endrick being unavailable when the Club World Cup kicked off in mid-June.
While the Brazilian suffered a right hamstring twinge towards the end of May, Mbappe had to endure a bout of gastritis he has since recovered from.
Though Gonzalo Garcia started Saturday's 3-2 quarterfinal win over Dortmund, Mbappe came off the bench and showed he is sharp enough to score by netting what pretty much proved to be the winner in the 94th minute.
For his biggest game in charge thus far, then, Alonso has a key decision to make on whether Gonzalo or Mbappe starts against the latter's last club in Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain.
That's if there is only one central 9 berth in a 4-3-3, or if Alonso goes for the same formation against PSG that fields two forwards in a 4-3-1-2.
He went for the latter approach against Dortmund, and there's also the possibility of Mbappe and Gonzalo being up front together, but that would come at the expense of Vinicius Jr.
There might be an argument for 'Vini' taking Arda Guler's spot which is deeper on the left on paper. But two potential problems there are losing Arda's playmaking abilities as a more centrally-operating number 10, or the left side being exposed in a brutal fashion by PSG if Vinicius and Mbappe don't track back to help defend as we saw them refuse to so many times in 2024/2025.
Endrick's Real Madrid future remains unclear
With it appearing to be a two-horse race at the minute for the striker's spot, Endrick's future at Real Madrid remains unclear. Joining just a year ago around the same time Mbappe switched from PSG, the Brazilian teenager may seek a loan away from the Bernabeu to earn regular minutes.
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