We can do better than Toni Kroos.

Great at maintaining possession, good at set-piece play.

Other than that what does he offer? He isn't as good as Casemiro when it comes to defense, he's not a tireless engine like Valverde, nor is he as athletic as those two.

Above all is his playmaking. He's complete crap. How many times have we've seen our forwards and attacking mids and fullbacks make great runs in behind but he chooses to instead side pass it to a nearby player or long passes it to the opposite player. For someone who is praised for his passing stats, he cannot play a single through pass to save his life. Please tell me how Valverde and Casemiro, considered inferior to Toni Kroos, are playing or at least trying to play a through pass. Even a 35-year-old Modric played more through balls.

Today's game was just one example of this. The fact is this has been happening for a while but no one seemed to pay attention. Kroos is fabulous in the aspects I mentioned, but that's all there is to his game.

He's turning 30 in less than a month and if Valverde can keep bringing performances and if we sign someone like Pogba, then maybe Kroos can get phased out.

Just like Barcelona fans and Rakitic or even Utd fans and Carrick, you'll miss Kroos when he's gone. Unless we end up getting a like for like.

As we are witnessing first hand, there is no one like Modric, not even current Modric.

Thats not a fair comparison, Kroos is 2 levels above Rakitic.

Rakitic has never been great, even when we were winning the treble in 2015. He was just a filler and workhorse. MSN did all the work. He's a good squad player to have, thats all.

Kroos is most guilty when it comes to lack of forward passing true, but it's a team thing imo modric doesn't play a lot of them either nor does casemiro, they mainly switch to the wings that the overall game plan, Valverde tries more but he is new to the team and hadn't developed that habit, James is player capable of splitting def open but he can't get into the attack, but now that the 10 role is back, James can handle those duties.

My main problem with kroos and the midfield in general is that they always shoot at the edge of the box, when they can also fake the shot and play a simple reverse pass to the cf or through ball to the fbs for a easy low cross.

The tactics themselves limit the team to distance shooting and a bunch of crosses, i don't think it's because the players are not capable, it's a mentality thing and the instructions, remember hazard wasn't playing any through passes when he went deep, just play it wide or dribble wide, the team hasn't been using the middle efficiently for like 9 seasons it shows, can't just blame one player for a team issue.