Marcelo and Isco, not even for emergencies

Vinicius, Mariano and the youth squad Arribas. Those were the changes introduced by Zinedine Zidane / David Bettoni in the development of the match that Madrid played against Levante. The last two as revulsive in the last minutes with the intention of rescuing at least one point of the meeting. On the bench were the two substitute goalkeepers, Lunin and Altube, two other white youth players, Chust and Blanco … and two players that the Madrid coaching staff barely already has: Marcelo and Isco.

It is striking that there was no time for either of them, when in the first stage of Zidane at the head of the white bench the two were practically starters: Without going any further, Marcelo appears in the photo of the three Champions League finals won in a row. For his part, Isco is in the eleven holder of the Twelfth and the Thirteenth. Both were key breaking into the 2014 Lisbon final precisely from the bench, but almost seven years later both seem to face the end point of their career at Real Madrid.

Perhaps the most painful case is that of the second Madrid captain. Marcelo hardly already counts for the coaching staff: of the 28 games that Real Madrid has played this season (among all competitions), the Brazilian has only participated in eight (28.57%: in the first stage of Zidane on the white bench he played 113 games out of 149, 75.83%). Of course, he has finished seven of those eight games: he was substituted in the defeat against Alavés (1-2) at the Alfredo Di Stéfano stadium in the 69th minute. The bad thing also in those just eight games has been the results: Madrid they only beat Valladolid (1-0) and Huesca (4-1) with him in the field. Accumulate five defeats and a draw against Elche (He was about to open the scoring, but his shot crashed off the crossbar). Marcelo has imposed a series of routines to regain his best physical form (despite the defeat and elimination against Alcoyano, he played the 120 minutes and was quite active): he trains with a physical trainer (Adolfo Madrid) with whom He has been working since December (he even took it with him to Granada in the week of vacation he had at Christmas), he has bought a special bed to help him recover better at night… all in order to return to his best level.

For its part, Isco's case is more worrying. The man from Malaga who has asked to leave the club in this winter market is going to stay: the transfer of Odegaard to Arsenal means that the midfield is left with just four players (Modric, Kroos, Casemiro and Valverde) for the second half of La Liga and the final rounds of the Champions League. And is that the non-presence of the Malaga is already a constant. Like Marcelo, he was one of the key pieces of Zidane's Madrid from his first stage. With him he played 114 of 149 games (76.51%). Even Zidane assured in his press conference as the new white coach that both he and James were going to be key. Something that he repeated on his return: he raised an information file on the Malaga player that Solari had opened, and made him start against Celta. The one from Arroyo de la Miel thanked him for the gesture, scoring the first goal of that second phase. Zidane has always defended him: “I don't give Isco the opportunity to show the player he was,” he assured in December, but he has not given him minutes: just 66 in the league in the last 10 league games. The day he has played the most in the last three months was the Cup match against Alcoyano (he played 98 minutes) …

Now that the final phase of the season begins (the final stage of the League where they are played for positions that give access to the Champions League next season and the knockout phase of the European competition itself), it is foreseen that both players will not have minutes at this stage either …