its not about injuries, its about changing the philosophy of the team and trusting more in the players coming from real madrid's youth academy system.
Unlike barcelona, money is what keeps this club afloat as one of europe's powerhouses and as long as barcelona's youth academy keeps improving and getting chances spain's national team will be the one to benefit while real madrid will just turn into an international club with no identity, and thats the main difference between the two clubs right now.
Spaniards obviously madrid fans wont like this because of their feeling of pride and stubbornness and mourinho being Portuguese doesnt give a fuck about this so real madrid is not going anywhere. selling granero and bringing a 30-year old for one year instead its obviously not the solution, specially when granero has been the best thing coming from their academy from a while ago
obviously as you said to stay competitive, not to exist in the football environment, most of their players are also la masia graduates who they never thought would become so successful, that mistake they look not to repeat again
I disagree, a fully fit Essien is one of the greatest midfielders in the planet, shame injuries ravaged him