Even if Real Madrid are not in an outright disastrous position halfway through the new Champions League, there is no escaping the fact that they are in a precarious – not to say embarrassing – situation.

Wednesday’s match against Liverpool at Anfield was staring them aggressively in the face, at a time when Los Blancos’ The injury list is debilitating and when Carlo Ancelotti’s side has shown their vulnerable side, they are in the middle of the table, that is, 18th, and two points away from the relegation zone.

Before we go any further, ask yourself this question: can you ever remember Real Madrid being mid-table, 18th or two points above the relegation zone, in anything in your life, ever?

Okay, there’s no real reason to panic.

Including this visit to the leaders of the Premier League and Champions League, the European champions still have four games left to put themselves in a safer position, which will mean a play-off in the spring, or automatically qualify for the quarter-finals if they can find their way. to the top eight.

But if Madrid are defeated in the north-west of England – and that is not entirely unlikely – they could be overtaken by a handful of teams such as Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan or Benfica, and could fall further to the bottom of the table slide. Competition with 36 teams in which the danger begins to seem serious.

The stark fact is that despite two recent domestic blows dealt to lower-level teams, the current European champions head to Anfield with far too many problems in their backpacks. Their absent list of injured stars includes: Éder Militão, David Alaba, Dani Carvajal, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Rodrygo and, crucially, Vinícius Júnior. Terrible.

They still have a strong squad, and they will still field a team that would be the envy of many clubs in the upper echelons of world football. have suffered.

Last season, Ancelotti’s team became champions despite a series of crippling injuries, but never so many at the same time. There is a balancing factor in Thibaut Courtois’ return in goal, which is absolutely monumental. Jude Bellingham is returning to form and Lucas Vázquez could travel with the squad and possibly play as a right-back.

Still, losing Vinicius to a hamstring injury is a huge blow for Madrid, especially against Liverpool. The Brazilian has been a perennial nightmare for the Premier League side. The Spanish champions have an extraordinary recent record against the Reds. They have only lost competitively to them twice, haven’t suffered a defeat in 15 years and have beaten Liverpool in two recent Champions League finals.

Vinicius played a central role in this, producing goals and assists (seven in total) to torment the Anfield men. This season, the devastating Brazilian has scored 20 goals (by scoring or assisting) in just 18 appearances in all competitions. What a loss.

But whether or not Madrid continues their eternal “You can’t hurt us, we’re Teflon!” attitude and win, or be defeated and forced to lick their wounds and then prepare for “All on Deck!” over the remaining three matches, it is worth pointing out that this situation has helped expose Florentino Perez’s hypocrisy even more.

I don’t think it was a good weekend for the president of Madrid, who used the annual general meeting to express his views to the club’s members and, therefore, through the media, to the whole world. He trotted out some nonsense about how Vinicius would have won the Ballon d’Or if it weren’t for the strange behavior of voting countries like Uganda, Namibia, Albania and Finland.

It was nothing more than a wave of an arm from a haughty billionaire to the boardroom table. He has unilaterally rejected the football value and relevance of these countries. In his tirade he made it clear that from his point of view, the voters from these countries were nobody and were not known to anyone. He treated their international credibility in a demeaning manner.

What he forgot to take into account was that these countries gave votes and points to Karim Benzema or Courtois when the Frenchman won and the Belgian finished seventh in the 2022 Ballon d’Or. Then there was nothing to complain about: simply the quiet satisfaction that the serfs had voted as they were supposed to vote.

Perez was hypocritical then, but even more so when he threw mud at the Champions League format. Perez further claimed that a one-year-old European court ruling had freed football from the tyrannical yoke of FIFA and UEFA. Twelve months later, and remember, nothing specific has happened because of that statement. But Madrid’s president still felt it important to suggest that the sport had undergone a ridiculous emancipation.

It seemed nonsensical in itself, but he compounded the error by chattering about his beloved Super League project, claiming there was growing support for it and ignoring the fact that not only were he and his allies roundly defeated the last time that they brought this project. project to the table, but also humiliated by the ineptitude of their timing, their communication and by the way a landslide of general football opinion went against them.

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Marcotti: Real Madrid must sign a central defender in January

Gab & Juls discuss Real Madrid’s injury problems after Éder Militão was stretchered off with an ACL injury.

Yet he continues to praise it. What he wants most is more income for the big clubs. He claims it could be a panacea for the amount football fans have to pay to watch the teams – not an unfair complaint – and a solution to the way the governing bodies squeeze out all the good, creativity and sustainability. of our best football players.

What has always been central, and I assume is still central to Perez’s Super League idea, is that the big clubs play the big clubs non-stop. No scum. The inherent disadvantage for domestic football across Europe was the Achilles heel that he failed to understand that fans would (still) rebel against.

Anyway, only on a glitzy and superficial level might the idea of ​​Europe’s big names playing each other repeatedly, and not having to worry about awkward trips to the Czech Republic, Scotland, Finland or Norway, etc., appeal to some seem tempting.

What Perez didn’t mention was that this week at Anfield, Real Madrid will face exactly the kind of match they crave in this new hypothetical competition. Exactly when Los Blancos would much rather play a minion that is easy to knock down.

I make no point that I want Real Madrid to progress in this tournament, because they bring excitement and an irresistible will to win, and they are the proven emperors of this competition. No question, no argument.

But the ironic, cynical laughter that will haunt them if they struggle or are eliminated for failure against Liverpool and Milan, the midweek matches they long for again and again in their Super League, would be an icy revenge for those opposed to Perez’s selfish plans.

Wednesday will be an occasion where footballers such as Kylian Mbappé, Courtois, Bellingham and Federico Valverde should absolutely shine and where a draw will be more than enough. But there is a chance of defeat for the champions, which would leave an egg on the face of their ambitious president and his team in a terribly difficult qualifying position.