Toni Kroos returns to eleven after serving a sanction against Getafe and with his return he meets again with Casemiro and Modric, the almost inseparable trident of the Real Madrid midfield. Since Zidane took over the white bench and entrusted the pivot to the Brazilian, the alignment of the medullary is recited on a run. They are the history of Madrid from the three Zidane Champions.
The start of this season had difficulties for all three. It was difficult for Casemiro and Modric to establish themselves in the team. The Brazilian was the victim of the change of drawing (to a 4-2-3-1) with which Zidane tried to find accommodation to Odegaard in the league premiere in Anoeta. The Croatian was relegated to coming off the bench in several games. His excellent performance and the goal with which he sentenced the Classic returned him to eleven. For its part, a muscle injury weighed down Kroos, who missed the second half against Betis and two other games. In the first 12 official matches, the three barely shared 21 minutes, those of the final stretch of the Camp Nou Classic.
The dynamics changed since the visit to Inter Milan. Valverde's injury, then Odegaard's and Isco's poor performance left Zidane with practically no alternatives. The only two times that Zidane broke the trident without injury or penalty was with the breaks he gave Casemiro in the match against Shakhtar in Ukraine and Modric's in the Cup. The odometer has not stopped. The three individually exceed the 2,000 minutes played (2,177 'for Casemiro, 2,074' for Modric and 2,021 'for Kroos). Practically half of the time that each has spent on the field has been accompanied by the other two: they have been together for 1,024 minutes this season. In the six seasons that they have been sharing a dressing room uninterruptedly, the trident has participated in 107 league games, 83 of them under Zidane's command.
LaLiga Santander
* Data updated as of February 13, 2021
The Kroos-Casemiro connection
The three find each other in the center of the field, but not so much in the vicinity of the rival area. In these years Modric has received assistance from Casemiro and another from Kroos. The German has not scored a pass from his two line mates, but together with Casemiro he forms a very productive partnership for Madrid. The paulista has scored six header goals in corners thrown by Kroos. This season the German-Brazilian connection has produced two goals: those that opened the scoring against Atlético in the derby and against Alavés in Mendizorroza.