Official: Toni Kroos to Real Madrid

Bild say he'll join for €25m, get €12m a year and sign a 5 year contract. Transfer will be announced after the World Cup.

Who's he going to bench? Modric or di Maria?

Not sure why we're signing him. He shouldn't be starting over Modric or Di Maria.

They apparently are gonna sell Di Maria. ( )

Anyway i look forward to seeing Nick and the majority of the forum actually doing a complete u-turn on Kroos.

I don't even understand why we're even trying to sign top players. But then again that's what we always do. Our midfield and attack is fine as it is imo. Just need a few backups.

I am still hoping that it's actually not to replace Di maria but alonso, however weird that looks it fits with the way ancelotti has used his 3 man midfield historically.

He has always played a mediocentro (Pirlo at Milan, Motta and verratti at PSG), surrounded by two more hard working players. i think that's what he did in madrid with alonso surrounded by Modric and khedira first and then modric and di maria when Khedira got injured.

alonso being old and in need of replacement, we signed illarra, but even for he, playing mediocentro was new and difficult. kroos to me is another attempt to do that and i do see how it could work although learning a new position and the tactical discipline it requires could be difficult.

Signing Kroos to replace di maria is profoundly dumb as far as i am concerned because the amount of work di maria did to cover CR and marcelo on that side is undervalued.

the amount of talented players Real Madrid have and sign is absolutely unreal. When you have the amount of money that they do, their signings don't have to make sense.

Please, replace Di Maria with this guy

And thats nothing against Kroos, he is a very good player.

Let's just assume for a moment that Carletto might know what he's doing.

  

Ancelotti knows what he is doing, he wants to keep his current players and add Kroos on top of it.

the issue is with management

What does this mean for Isco?

it changes nothing if Kroos is coming to replace Alonso, which is my theory.

Kroos is average defensively, so I don't think he can play in Alonso's position. Even Alonso, who is decent defensively struggled at times when defending counter-attacks.

pirlo was average defensively too, that didnt stop carlo from putting him in front of the defense. defending will be done with the help of Di Maria and modric. If we really wanted to replace Alonso by a stronger defensive player, we would have gone for one already. Carlo is too much into having a mediocentro surrounded by workhorses, that's his way of football. and it makes sense with us, box interiors midfielders and fullbacks also supporting our lazy wingers.

Yohan Modric wrote:Kroos is average defensively, so I don't think he can play in Alonso's position. Even Alonso, who is decent defensively struggled at times when defending counter-attacks.

Alonso is not good defensively though, wouldn't be a step down defensively. So i don't know how it will make us worse defensively.

Also, he's obviously not a Di Maria replacement, pretty obvious he's an Alonso replacement who can also fit into Modric's position. If he's not an Alonso replacement, we have to change tactics and formation, not that we were absolutely consistent in that department though.

Considering that he is NOT supposed to be a defensive midfielder, but a CM or CAM, Kroos is actually pretty good defensively.

Scrap that..

Who is Kroos?

Nick what do you think about James ? Could he play false 9 ?

Mr Nick09 wrote:it changes nothing if Kroos is coming to replace Alonso, which is my theory.

Carlo loves Alonso. Do you really think he wouldn't shift around the team just to include him, if one of your starters aren't available?

If Di Maria/Modric aren't available Kroos will go to one of there positions and Alonso will fill in at DM.

Or if CR/Bale aren't available Di Maria will move to the wings and Kroos will play higher up and Alonso fills in at DM.

It clearly does change things for Isco.

lol, of course not. i dont want James anywhere near madrid. not needed. what is this false 9 phantasm people have with James on madrid forums? lmao

Casciavit wrote:

Mr Nick09 wrote:it changes nothing if Kroos is coming to replace Alonso, which is my theory.

Carlo loves Alonso. Do you really think he wouldn't shift around the team just to include him, if one of your starters aren't available?

If Di Maria/Modric aren't available Kroos will go to one of there positions and Alonso will fill in at DM.

Or if CR/Bale aren't available Di Maria will move to the wings and Kroos will play higher up and Alonso fills in at DM.

It clearly does change things for Isco.

Carlo loves alonso, mainly because Alonso is the only player in the team that can act as midfield general and act as chief. i think he is looking for the same quality in kroos because we saw how bad it was last season without Alonso, who btw is 32 and on his last contract.

yes the way you describe it it changes a bit, but im not too worried about his game time, think it will be just as rich as it was last season. we go 442 a lot as well and kroos cant play side midfielder as vs bayern and barca in finals last season

why would we buy james to play false 9? did bale/cr/isco failing it didn't happen? can you think before posting?

chad4401 wrote: why would we buy james to play false 9? did bale/cr/isco failing it didn't happen? can you think before posting?

because we need a player to rotate with Benzema who's to inconsistent and weak mentally ? or even take his spot if he doesn't perform ?

Kroos at the Xabi role this is not 2005, teams will exploit that like crazy. even if, at Milan we had Gattuso and Ambrosini not Di Maria and Modric.

yeah, bayern tried to exploit alonso-modric-di maria too, got manitad

Xabi is not Kroos.Even then, Madrid played 4-4-2, not a 3 man midfield.