Atletico Madrid midfielder Tiago says neighbours Real Madrid now lack balance in midfield with Xabi Alonso having left for Bayern Munich.
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Alonso made the switch to Bayern late on in the summer's transfer window, with another of last season's successful Madrid midfielders, Angel Di Maria, also leaving the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu for Manchester United.
While Los Blancos have brought in James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos for almost 100 million euros, both new players struggled with their defensive duties during the 4-2 defeat at Real Sociedad before the international break.
Ahead of Saturday's La Liga derbi between the two Madrid rivals, Tiago told Marca that Alonso's absence in particular was going to be an issue for the European champions.
"Madrid lose something without him," Tiago said. "He is the one who gave the team balance. They will miss him a bit."
Another current concern around the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu is the fitness of Cristiano Ronaldo, who sat out both the loss at Sociedad and Portugal's shock 1-0 Euro 2016 qualifying defeat at home to Albania last week in an attempt to finally put long-term knee and thigh injury issues behind him.
Ronaldo's former Portugal teammate said that the injury must have been particularly serious for the forward to miss international duty.
"You can see Cristiano has physical problems," Tiago said. "For him not to join up with Portugal, it must be something big. But these two weeks will have helped him."
Alonso's absence and Ronaldo's fitness could be particularly worrying for Madrid, given Atletico's physical and aggressive reputation.
However, Tiago rejected the idea that his side's approach to the game was over the top.
"We are a team who give everything," he said. "We commit more fouls than the opponent, but we are not violent. People go too far in their talk."