{"id":6104,"date":"2026-04-23T08:55:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T08:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/?p=6104"},"modified":"2026-04-23T11:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:15:21","slug":"alvaro-arbeloa-denies-rift-with-real-madrid-captain-dani-carvajal-its-simple-only-11-can-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/23\/alvaro-arbeloa-denies-rift-with-real-madrid-captain-dani-carvajal-its-simple-only-11-can-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvaro Arbeloa denies rift with Real Madrid captain Dani Carvajal \u2013 \u2018It\u2019s simple, only 11 can play\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Real Madrid manager Alvaro Arbeloa has denied any issues with captain Dani Carvajal, after talk of a rift between the two in the Spanish capital. The 34-year-old was expected to start against Alaves on Tuesday, but Trent Alexander-Arnold was given the start ahead of him.<\/p>\n<p>Carvajal has struggled for starts under Arbeloa since returning to fitness in January, with Alexander-Arnold preferred for the most part. With Los Blancos now only in one competition, it came as a surprise that Carvajal was not given the opportunity, and his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-espana.net\/2026\/04\/22\/arbeloa-vinicius-whistles\">response to that was that he was doing the best for his team on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy response the other day was curt and serious, to a question I found out of place; it wasn\u2019t about Dani Carvajal. You can see my responses whenever I talk about him; ask my players how I speak about him in front of the group. You\u2019re trying to put me in a difficult position in this unfair situation. He\u2019s more than ready to go to the World Cup, I\u2019m happy with him, and I think he should be just as important to the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u00c1LVARO ARBELOA, EN DIRECTO | RUEDA DE PRENSA HOY previa al REAL BETIS vs. REAL MADRID\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1f-e9Loo090?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always had a good relationship with him, I\u2019ve always treated him with affection, respect, and admiration. For people to think I make lineups for personal reasons\u2026 I find it hard to believe that any coach in the world doesn\u2019t make lineups for footballing reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Only XI players can play\u2019 \u2013 Alvaro Arbeloa<\/h2>\n<p>In terms of what Carvajal is lacking to be given more opportunities, Arbeloa said that Carvajal was not the only player he was being \u2018unfair\u2019 with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very simple, only 11 players can play. It\u2019s not that they can\u2019t play. There are many I\u2019m being unfair to, but I know how well they train. That\u2019s all there is to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\">\n<p>Arbeloa did not outright say that he wanted Carvajal to be at the club next season though, with his contract up at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you ask, I tell you the same thing: it\u2019s between them. I\u2019d be happy with whatever makes them happy. Anything good for Carvajal and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realmadrid.com\/\">Real Madrid<\/a> is good for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Trent Alexander-Arnold ahead of Carvajal in pecking order<\/h2>\n<p>A large part of the equation is that Carvajal is trying to make it to the World Cup with Spain, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-espana.net\/2026\/04\/21\/luis-de-la-fuente-calls-dani-carvajal-over-spain-world-cup-spot\">needs to demonstrate his fitness in order to make it into Luis de la Fuente\u2019s squad<\/a>. Alexander-Arnold is also in a final push to gouge out a place in Thomas Tuchel\u2019s England squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\">\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s showing a high level, he deserves to play, his performance is beyond question. Every match is a matter of life and death for me; when I put a player in, it\u2019s because I believe he deserves it and because I think it\u2019s to win. I don\u2019t give anyone a single minute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pair were always likely to be in competition this season for a starting spot, but both have suffered with injuries. After Carvajal originally began starting under Xabi Alonso when both were available, it has surprised some that Carvajal has been unable to earn more starts.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-espana.net\/2026\/04\/23\/arbeloa-carvajal-relationship-press\">Alvaro Arbeloa denies rift with Real Madrid captain Dani Carvajal &#8211; &#8216;It&#8217;s simple, only 11 can play&#8217;<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football-espana.net\">Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Real Madrid manager Alvaro Arbeloa has denied any issues with captain Dani Carvajal, after talk of a rift between the two in the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6105,"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6104\/revisions\/6105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/piquant-burotic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}