real madrid and barcelona have two of the most talented, and expensively assembled, teams in world football but who would make a combined xi out of the two squads based, not on reputation, but on current form? allow me to get ahead of the fury of the comments section if you're ancelotti do you pick ronaldo? of course you do cristiano ronaldo may be the world player of the year, but on current form he doesn't make combined xi  our combined xi, which has no place for ronaldo, but does feature some of the world's best players  ronaldo hasn't scored a league goal from open play in a month, and gareth bale is preferred on the wing  did ronaldo have a brilliant first four months of the season? of course he did? might he score the winner on sunday? quite possibly does he deserve to be in a combined xi based on current form no goalkeeper   marc andre ter stegen  there are four to choose from keylor navas has barely played and iker casillas continues make mistakes in big games – schalke, atletico madrid   so that leaves the two barcelona goalkeepers claudio bravo is the league keeper but every time marc andre ter stegen plays he impresses and he’s fresh from a penalty save in midweek marc andre ter stegen has not played in the league this season, but he has earned his chance this week  right back   dani alves  it’s a close call between alves and dani carvajal but the brazilian shades it after an aggressive, positive performance in midweek and because for all his much debated defensive shortcomings carvajal has actually shown many of the same deficiencies of late dani alves put in a strong performance against manchester city, and just shades real madrid's dani carvajal  centre back   gerard pique  one of the best defenders in europe this season – so much for the poster boy with the pop star wife who was now more interested in playing poker and running his web business than playing football no one has been better than pique, not at barca, not in la liga, not anywhere gerard pique, europe's best defender this season, stops sergio aguero in the champions league  centre back   pepe  he gets in just ahead of ramos courtesy of the spain defender having only just come back from injury pepe has held together real madrid’s defence in his partner’s absence and is playing like a man who wants and will probably be given a new contract has shown why manuel pellegrini wanted him at the start of the season portuguese centre back pepe has been in excellent form in recent weeks, holding the real defence together  sergio ramos (left) has returned to fitness, and should start on sunday, but pepe just pips him in our team  left back   jordi alba  a very close call between jordi alba and marcelo alba is the fastest full back in football the only defender quicker than jesus navas and he showed it on wednesday marcelo offers madrid so much going forward and has improved defensively but alba shades it jordi alba proved against jesus navas that he is the fastest full back in the world, and he makes the xi  real madrid's left back marcelo has improved his game, and offers plenty going forward, but just misses out  right midfield   ivan rakitic  scored against city and in the league against granada two weeks before the croatian is starting to show the sort of form that made him one of la liga’s best midfielders last season ivan rakitic has been a top performer for barcelona recently, including his well taken goal in midweek  centre midfield   javier mascherano  it was bad luck for manchester city that when injury hit barcelona before the midweek second leg it probably made them even stronger sergio busquets is perhaps the second best holding midfielder in the world, mascherano, who as roy hodgson well knows (after getting slightly carried away and selecting him as the world's best player in the ballon d’or vote), is the best the injury to sergio busquets has allowed mascherano (left) to prove again that he is the world's best  left midfield   isco  he is not the complete midfielder that many real madrid supporters seem to believe he is but all the same he is in very special form at the moment and in this team he can play alongside messi, who famously has a dog named after isco is in a rich vein of form for the european champions recently, and can thrive in a number of positions  right forward   lionel messi  does there need to be an explanation here? lionel messi mesmorised manchester city in midweek with a performance for the ages at the nou camp  messi is currently the best player in the world, on form, and possibly even the greatest of all time  centre forward   luis suarez  selecting between suarez and karim benzema was one of the toughest choices but in this combined super team you have messi dropping into midfield so the battering ram that is suarez gets in ahead of him luis suarez just edges in ahead of karim benzema to allow for his combination with messi up front  left forward   gareth bale  it has to be bale or ronaldo or neymar so what can you do? neymar and ronaldo both went off in a huff in their last league games, bale scored twice to silence some of the disproportionate criticism he has been on the end off put bale back on the left where he can whip the ball on his favoured foot or just do as he did last season against barcelona in the copa del rey final and power so far in front of his marker that he can still cut inside and shoot there is also only one player who has scored with a direct free kick for real madrid this season and it isn’t ronaldo it’s bale total: barcelona 8 real madrid 3  gareth bale gets in ahead of ronaldo after his two goals, complete with great celebration, against levante  bale can have a real impact if he is moved back to the left hand side, and starts up front in our team 
real madrid the nou camp barcelona sunday cristiano ronaldo this year clasico messi bale suarez
real madrid travel to the nou camp to face barcelona on sunday . barca are top of the league, one point ahead of their great rivals . cristiano ronaldo is out of form this year, so misses out on clasico team . but messi, bale and suarez make up formidable front three 