Isco is one of those players who have an intermediate status in Zidane's Madrid. He is not the undisputed starter, but he frequently enjoys opportunities in the French coach's eleven. A coach who also feels a particular esteem for the man from Malaga, whom Zizou has not hesitated to say that, due to his style of play, he is the player with whom he most identifies. However, Isco's comment that the Movistar + cameras captured in the run-up to the Classic could break the idyll between Isco and his coach.
The one from Arroyo de la Miel talked before the start of the game with Marcelo, Militao and Lucas Vázquez about their situation (Modric and Jovic were with them absorbed in their mobiles and oblivious to the conversation) and launched a devastating diagnosis. “It changes me in 50 'or 60', sometimes at halftime, and if I go out he puts me in 80 '”, said Isco about Zidane in a comment that caused Marcelo to laugh.
A veiled complaint that the microphones picked up in an empty Camp Nou and that distances Isco from Zidane. Not because of the lack of certainty in his comment, but because, although he has been far from his best level for some time (he has not been summoned with the National Team since June 2019), the midfielder repeatedly has the confidence of his coach, public in his statements and patent in their alignments.
Isco has played 4 games this season, in which he has added 147 minutes. He has been a starter in two of them and a substitute in two others. He started against Valladolid and Cádiz and Zidane changed him in both. Against the Blanquivioletas in 57 'and against the Yellows in 46'. The other two games started on the bench. Against Betis he replaced Odegaard at half-time (the Malaga-born is not precise in his complaint) and in the visit to Levante he came out on 89 '.
Champions League
* Data updated as of October 26, 2020
Last season he only completed 2 of the 30 games he played (20 as a starter). The inconsequential (for Madrid) last league match against Leganés and the semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup against Valencia. Season ended like 13er player in minutes. So far this season he is the 16th. But Beyond what the numbers say quantitatively, the opportunities that Zidane has given him speak for themselves of the trust he places in Isco. Last season he was a regular in the starting eleven until the pandemic broke out. And, except for the round of 16 against City, was the game in practically all the key games: the two of the Super Cup, both Classics or the matches at the Bernabéu against Atlético and PSG (both as a visitor he missed them due to injury).
The outlook for Isco is now different. Seeing himself a substitute at the Camp Nou after not playing any minute against Shakhtar, the Malaga player showed his discomfort in front of his teammates and, inadvertently, in front of Movistar cameras. Perhaps something has changed for Isco who, with Zidane as coach, has never been unprecedented for two games in a row due to a technical decision.