BARCELONA: During Real Madrid’s traditional team dinner before the winter break in Spain, France left back Ferland Mendy discovered he had an insightful “Secret Santa.”
Mendy’s anonymous Christmas present turned out to be a brick.
The brick was meant as a joke, but one with a point. It was that Mendy plays with an intense determination to stop attackers from advancing down his side of the pitch.
“That gift of the brick was because during practice he sometimes gives us some very hard knocks,” fellow defender Raphael Varane said on Saturday, after Mendy was one of Madrid’s top performers in a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid.
“It was a little joke. We know how good a defender he is. He is in great shape. He is incredibly strong. He is adapting well to the team and helps it in every facet.”
Ever since the days of the “Galácticos,” Madrid has won titles by overwhelming opponents with its collection of world-class attacking players.
But this season Madrid is leading the Spanish league and is undefeated in 21 matches largely thanks to its stingy defense.
With its victory over Atletico, Zinedine Zidane’s side set a club record of conceding only 13 goals through 22 rounds of the Spanish league. Madrid conceded 14 goals through the first 22 rounds in 1987-88.
Barcelona has outscored Madrid 52-40 in the league, but it has conceded 13 more goals and trails Madrid by three points.
“Defending is down to all of us, when we lose the ball we work quickly to get it back,” Zidane said after the Madrid derby. “People come to see their team playing well, fighting. I know we cannot always play brilliantly. Today was tough but the way people talk about the team after the game is down to the way we play. We got our reward today against a top rival who plays well.”
Zidane has made his defense much more reliable by benching longtime starter Marcelo in favor of Mendy, who arrived from Lyon for 48 million euros (then $54 million) in the off season. The 24-year-old Mendy is a tireless worker on the left flank, patching up the one hole in Madrid’s backline that Marcelo would leave open to join in attack.
And despite not having the scoring skills of Marcelo, Mendy did place a perfect cross for Karim Benzema to score the winner against Atletico.