Benitez left red-faced for second time this week after Marcelo controversy

Rafa Benitez was widely blamed for fielding Denis Cheryshev and thereby getting Real Madrid thrown out of the Copa del Rey this week.

But the under-fire Real boss must have thought his luck was changing when Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema all found the net in Real's 4-1 thrashing of Getafe on Saturday afternoon.

Sadly for the ex-Liverpool boss, it was not to be. In his press conference he was immediately deluged with questions not about his fine attacking force, but instead Brazilian defender Marcelo, who had been left out of the match day squad.

The problem? Benitez had claimed that the player was injured, only for Marcelo himself to Instagram a picture of himself insisting that he was completely fit and ready to go.

Benitez admitted after the match that Marcelo had trained well and would be fit for Champions League duty next week, but insisted that he'd been told by the club doctor that the player would not be fit to play in Saturday's Liga clash.

"The doctor told me Marcelo is not yet ready but he trained well and will probably be ready for the Champions League," said Benitez.

"We need Marcelo to come back in the best possible way, and he may be with us vs Malmö. We just want to protect our players."

It's hard to know who to believe, of course - but this incident together with the cock-up during the week strongly suggests that there are major communications issues at Real Madrid.

And furthermore, it also suggests that Marcelo isn't too worried about making his manager look just a little bit foolish.