Illara will replace Alonso, but I can't see Isco playing as a box-box MF role as Khedira. Isco is an AM. If he doesn't get to play at Madrid. He will play in England. Too good a player to get wasted.

If he's an AM then I'm not sure why we sold Ozil. Bale, Ozil, Ronaldo could have played in a 4-2-3-1.

Isco has been playing as a LCM/LAM.

^^ which is how Isco plays when he's on the pitch anyway. Not necessarily that "creator" we made him out to be.


He will stay and get time to really shine. We can't really determine his after not even half a season with us.

So we spent 40m on Illarra to keep him on bench ? It's clear that Carlo is trying to intergrate Illarra, to take the spot from Alonso in the future. Isco will get Modric's place and hopefully Casemiro Khedira's.

The club wanted an 'Alonso' future replacement without even knowing what formation we would play. Ideally we would have bought a pure DM instead of Illarramendi.

isco has yet to play like a CM for us. replace khedira? there couldnt be a more dissimilar comparison.

so far isco has played like how modric played last year, as an AM who does work back defensively but isnt effective defensively.

until isco can add more to his game theres no way i'd consider him a CM, and i think carlo thinks the same way.

Bias for Isco is so funny to me, everyone trying to be patient and reasonable , anyway its obvious he is still stuck in his own little world and instead of adapting to his new role, he just dribbles until he loses it over and over, all he has to do is pass the ball more and dribble when necessary, a player of his intelligence and talent shouldn't find this concept so hard being spanish.

the bias is because he is new, and wasn't too expensive....other players who have been given a hard time are people who have been in the club about 4 or 5 years now and we are still waiting for that consistency to kick in....(consistency does not mean scoring in your last 2 games or assisting in your last two by the way)....it has to be significant level of consistency. especially as some of these so called players have people in high places within the club that continue to favor them or show them more support than they do other players for instance....i won't mention who, but i'm sure fans can guess who i'm talking about

chad4401 wrote:Bias for Isco is so funny to me, everyone trying to be patient and reasonable , anyway its obvious he is still stuck in his own little world and instead of adapting to his new role, he just dribbles until he loses it over and over, all he has to do is pass the ball more and dribble when necessary, a player of his intelligence and talent shouldn't find this concept so hard being spanish.

My only question is : What did you guys expect. Isco is exactly playing like at Malaga ...

Carlo most likely wants Isco to be playing at a level that is suitable to the tactics he has and at the moment, he isn't.

At this point, I think even Ancelloti is not sure what he wants and worse from whom.

isco =frustrating

he needs to learn when to dribble and when to pass. hopefully he matures and learn fast

how do you rate his performance from the 1st half of the season ? for me, personally, he was pathetic apart from his first matches

He was impressive in the first few matches, after that he's done adequately. There's things he's done well and things he needs to improve on. For example he needs to dribble a little less at times.

Yohan Modric wrote:He was impressive in the first few matches, after that he's done adequately. There's things he's done well and things he needs to improve on. For example he needs to dribble a little less at times.

He's a great dribbler and has an eye for goal. Which is somrhing we would ask of Ozil from time to time.

Ozil would always look to play the final ball. Isco doesn't and with a forward line consisting of Bale and Ronaldo, that should be the number 1 priority for Isco.

He tends to over dribble and ends up losing possession. He has great workrate and over time will indeed improve. But I haven't been "impressed".

Carlo Ancelotti has admitted that Real Madrid's change to a 4-3-3 formation hurts Isco's chances of getting regular first-team action, but has insisted that the 21-year-old still has a future at the Santiago Bernabeu side.

The attacking midfielder impressed with a string of fine performances in the opening stages of the 2013-14 campaign, but has been struggling to replicate that form since Madrid moved away from their 4-2-3-1 set-up.

Nevertheless, Ancelotti has stressed that there is still room for Isco as he can also feature in a three-man midfield or on the right wing.

"The 4-3-3 system gives us more balance because the defensive job done by the three midfielders is very good and we will keep using this system," Ancelotti said at a press conference.

"It is true that this change makes it more difficult for Isco, but I think he can play in [Angel] Di María’s or [Luka] Modric’s position as well.

"Plus I have not completely forgotten about the old system and we may still use it from time to time."

So Di Maria is a starter again? I don't mind him at midfield really, he's doing great at his B2B role. And I guess this means Illra would be backup for Alonso and Modric... It just pains my heart to see a 30 million player sitting on the bench.  

+ glad we're finally settling a single formation, and just at the right moment imo.

Yeah, True hala. I wish he will adapt.

If Di Maria starts to play like he does for Argentina   

the xcx wrote:Hopefully gone by the summer, kaka 2.0

Why does a Manchester City fan care about Madrid?

he's pathetic ffs.   

Seems legit