Real Madrid full-back Marc Cucurella dropped one of his best ever performances against Barcelona in a 2-1 win last Sunday, and from an individual sense, there have not been many that were better than what the Spaniard did that night.

Cucurella was able to absolutely lock Lamine Yamal up, a player who has given Real Madrid's defense all sorts of trouble in the last few years.

However, with Real Madrid signing Cucurella earlier in the summer, that problem is also evaporating slowly. That does not mean Yamal will no longer have good performances against Real Madrid, but the signing will definitely help in that case.

Ferland Mendy will essentially get no game-time even if he is fit

Naturally, people would think that, because of Cucurella's performance, Alvaro Carreras will be the biggest sufferer, or the biggest loser, from him being so good in a big game. That might not be as true as people think.

Carreras has been at the club for more than a year now, and he has had some really good performances in big games. Jose Mourinho still rates him quite highly.

Despite Cucurella being the obviously better player, Carreras will still get his opportunities many times over the course of the season, but the same cannot be said about Ferland Mendy. If we rewind to last season, Mendy was only playing those big games against Bayern Munich, because of his ability to play well in a very big game.

It was simply because he was a very good big-game player, and Real Madrid needed that from their fullback.

Now, with Cucurella, they don't need that player anymore. They would not need Mendy to have a big performance against Barcelona or Bayern Munich because they already have one of the best left-backs in the world.

Carreras would have been fine as an option, but he will still get game time during the season, whereas Mendy will have to hope that these players have an undeniable drop in form, or maybe they're suspended for a big game. Otherwise, he just would not get his foot in the door.

Obviously, Carreras is still going to be a big loser in this entire situation because, if it wasn't for Cucurella, he would have had more chances than he has now. The chances that Mendy would have had probably would have come in the big games, and now it does not seem like any of that will really be needed by Real Madrid.