The journalists and the supporters are begging Zinedine Zidane to have more confidence in Isco. The Spanish playmaker is one of the best players in La Liga right now and he’s highlighting in every game he can play. For instance, he was the best against Sporting Gijón or Deportivo La Coruña. Now he has to show this quality in the Champions League.
Isco played the first derby against Atlético Madrid in the season. Back in November, Casemiro and Toni Kroos were injured, so Zidane had to make a lot of changes in the line-up. Lucas Vázquez played as a winger, whereas Kovacic and Isco occupied the midfield. Real Madrid won 0-3 with a hat-trick scored by Cristiano Ronaldo and Isco was one of the best players of the game.
The former Málaga player was in the midfield, far from the box, but he controlled the game and helped the team to stop the hard-worker Atlético Madrid midfielders. Today, Isco should play replacing Gareth Bale and Zidane will change the formation to a 4-4-2. With this formation, Isco has more opportunities to show off.
The French coach admitted that it was strange that Isco had played so little in the Champions League. He had only played 77 minutes in Europe before facing Bayern Munich at Bernabéu, a game that he started. Again, Isco replaced Bale and he did some good job in the first half, although he couldn’t highlight as much as in La Liga.
In the Champions League semi-finals is the right moment for Isco to step up and show Zinedine Zidane that he’s also able to play big games and help the team to achieve a good result in the first leg. It should be the main news in Zidane’s line-up, although James Rodríguez or Marco Asensio could also replace the Welshman. However, after resting against Valencia, no one would understand if Isco doesn’t finally play tonight’s clash.
