Real Madrid | Modric: a Golden Ball on the bench

The scene is repeated in the most important matches for Real Madrid this season. Modric assists from the bench during the early stages of the game. It happened at Camp Nou (he started at 69 ‘), at Borussia Park (at 70’) and at Di Stéfano against Inter (at 78 ‘). Three direct clashes, victory or crisis, for the white team in which the penultimate Ballon d’Or (in 2018) started from the bench and whose entry into the field coincided with the best minutes of Real Madrid. Against the black and blue it happened again. Modric took the field and two minutes later Rodrygo scored the goal that reveals Real Madrid’s path in Europe.

Although the Croatian is showing that he has gasoline left for a while, Zidane strictly enforces its rotation policy with Modric. The one he stressed the importance of in a message he expressly wanted to address to Real Madrid fans. “Our players never rest. There is a block of seven games, then they go with the national team. I’m not complaining, I just explain that it is necessary to rotate and I think we can win like this,” the coach preached before the game against Cadiz and immediately after a break for the national team in which Modric played 135 minutes in three games with the second classified of the world.

The coach distributed the rest of the rounds after loading the international matches: Casemiro against Cadiz, Kroos against Shakhtar (in a game full of variations) and Modric, the one who had played the most during the interval, in the Classic. The fourth in contention, Valverde, was only out of the eleven against Cadiz after the transoceanic trip.

Champions League

* Data updated to 4 November 2020

Modric had to see the first big game of the season starting from the bench. But 21 minutes were enough for him to leave his stamp: a goal that condemned the game (he had just scored a goal against Shakhtar which fueled the hope of returning against the Ukrainians) and three steals. Against Borussia he recharged his batteries in the stands, but jumped into the electric and omnipresent field. He made 28 good passes in just 24 minutes (counting recovery times), with a 93% success rate and was subject to 2 fouls by the Rhenish team.

Neither those performances nor the gray moment of a Kroos that looks more like that of two seasons ago than the reborn who contributed to League 34 with 4 goals and 5 assists have shaken the status established by Zidane in midfield. Modric had the match against Huesca (88 passes again with a 93% success rate); to the German, a new Champions League final.

Modric, who at 35 is the oldest in the squad, has participated in 10 games played by Madrid this season. In 6 he started (2 he played them in full) and in the other 4 he left the bench. In addition to the three mentioned above, he was also a substitute against Betis when he came out for Kroos, the victim of an injury that cleared the road to Balkan ownership. The two lost games of the German, for the moment extolling the budget of the minutes for the 10: 551 minutes for Modric, 493 for Teuton. Between sensations and tangible (the German has not yet scored), the Croatian substitute also wins.