Of course he bloody does.
We toyed with the idea of keeping Cristiano Ronaldo out of our combined XI, in order to cater to Barcelona’s simply ridiculous front three, but then we realised that we were being absolutely mental and tinkered with the formation.
Barcelona are currently favourites to win the latest edition of the most anticipated game in league football as they are 8/13 to hand Zinedine Zidane his first El Clasico defeat as manager.
Barcelona’s favouritism is reflected in our team as Luis Enrique’s men dominate our combined XI as we struggled to fit Cristiano Ronaldo in the attacking tornado of Messi, Neymar, Suarez.
But we managed it.
There truly wasn’t any contest for our last line of defence as Keylor Navas has cemented himself as one of the best stoppers in Europe.
The Costa Rican international has yet to concede a goal in the Champions League this season, has claimed 96% of crosses into the box and is a penalty-saving machine.
3 – Keylor Navas has equaled the best record of penalties saved by Iker Casillas in a single La Liga season (3 in 08/09). Puma.
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 20, 2016
That paperwork fiasco that saw David De Gea’s move to the Bernabeu fall through is looking more and more like no big deal and Navas gets our shout between the sticks.
Right back was a tricky decision for us as Dani Alves, who would normally be a no-brainer in a combined XI of these two sides, has looked past his best as of late.
The attacking options that he gives Barcelona have made him one of the greatest full backs of all time and his partnership with Lionel Messi on the right flank is not talked about nearly enough but Dani Carvajal has truly come into his own under Zizou.
Carvajal has made four fewer appearances in the league this season than his namesake but has actually created almost twice as many chances as Alves.
His pass accuracy is ever so slightly better (88%-87%) and the Spaniard is yet to make a defensive error this season.
It’s a changing of the guard at right back, ladies and gents.
Sergio Ramos joins Carvajal in our back four and there’s no questioning his spot as he’s been one of the best defenders in Europe for some time now.
The Spaniard has just endured the one defensive error this season and is not easily put under pressure, a trait which comes with his almost matchless experience.
He has a 90% pass accuracy but his selection is based more on the unquantifiable leadership that he brings to the team.
He’s not too shabby an aerial threat from set-pieces either and is always a danger against Barcelona, scoring three goals against his fiercest rivals.
Who else but his international teammate to partner Ramos at centre-half?
Just like Ramos, there’s been just the solitary defensive error from Gerard Pique for Barcelona this season.
He has won 56% of his aerial duels, made 43 interceptions and 95 clearances all season so he’s pretty solid at the back.
A natural athlete, Pique would have been a force at any sport to which he turned his hand and he’s always one to come up with a goal-saving challenge.
We’ve found that the full-backs were the most difficult positions to pick but Alba just about gets the nod over Marcelo at left-back.
We had Marcelo initially written down but feel that he’s far too attack-minded and could leave his fellow defenders stranded so we opted for Alba who has begun finding the perfect balance of defence and attack in this, his fourth season at the Camp Nou.
In terms of team balance, it has to be Alba. He’s also less likely to do something absolutely insane.
We had to go for two composed forces in the centre of the park as picking the likes of James Rodriguez or Isco would leave too much work for our defence.
When you see our attacking four, you’ll understand why we had to play it a little bit more safe in the centre of midfield and Sergio Busquets gets his slot as our holding midfielder.
The Spaniard essentially doesn’t lose the ball, enjoying a pass accuracy of 89% this season and he is more than adept at keeping his foot on the ball to dispel any pressure on his side.
Rakitic over Iniesta, you ask. You’re damn right, I answer.
Iniesta, at 31, is not the guaranteed starter he once was and while he may still be one of the greatest midfielders in the game, we’ve given his successor, Ivan Rakitic, a place in our XI.
The Croatian has been a revelation for Barcelona and enjoys a similar pass success percentage to Busquets.
He and his more conservatively-minded midfield partner are tasked with the job of linking defence and attack and we’re quite confident in our selection of Rakitic and Busquets at pulling that job off.
To fit Neymar into our side, Lionel Messi had to be given a more central role but he always drifts into that position anyway so we’re confident that he can do a job for us here.
We’re salivating at the thought of Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo occupying full backs, stretching the defence and giving Messi acres of room to run into.
There’s no point in quoting stats about Lionel Messi because, in my book, he’s the best of all time and will also do well in dropping deep to collect balls from both Alba and Carvajal.
He’s not getting anywhere near a penalty but, apart from spot-kicks, there’s nothing he can’t do with the ball at his feet.
On the left side of our attack, we just had to include Cristiano Ronaldo and despite not being in the best form of his ludicrously impressive career, he was never really in danger of losing a place.
A lot of his shortcomings this season have come down to defences doubling up on him but with the talent in this combined XI, the imaginary side against who they are up simply won’t have the bodies to do that.
And for all the flak that Ronaldo has gotten in the press, he’s still the leading scorer in La Liga this season with 28 goals to his name.
There’s nobody better at collecting the ball out on the left, cutting inside and hammering a shot to the far post, nor is he the worst from corner kicks as he seems to reach heights that most centre-halves couldn’t find with a pogo stick.
It genuinely wouldn’t surprise us to see Neymar win the Ballon d’Or this year!
During Messi’s absence due to injury early on in the season, Neymar more than picked up the responsibility and kept the team on track atop the table.
And even when Messi returned, Neymar’s form didn’t drop off one bit. He emerged from the shadows this season and is possibly the most creative player in the world with the ball at his feet.
He’s created 81 chances since the start of this season and while he may not be too comfortable on the right side of attack, we couldn’t leave him out.
Luis Suarez could well be the best finisher in world football so he figureheads our team.
We forgive all his chomping and there was no chance that Karim Benzema was going to beat the Uruguayan to a starting place.
He’s a bit like Thierry Henry in that you simply expect him to score with every shot at goal and he’s found the net on 26 occasions this season so was a no-brainer up top.
Here’s what our combined XI looks like.
Bench: Ter-Stegen, Marcelo, Varane, Kroos, Iniesta, James, Bale.
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