I'm happy Messi decided to not show up, lets be honest here if tata had a clue he would have started sanchez and pedro. cesc and neymar should have been on the bench, Messi wasn't interested and that had a lot to do with it.
To put this into perspective: he put in 9 tackles -- 3 more than anyone else on the pitch despite being on a yellow from the 3rd minute. He also created 4 chances, 2 more than any Barcelona player. And he had the best pass accuracy of the night, 92%.
His defending skills have improved lately, hope it continues because this guy will be the crucial for the future.
Not convinced that playing him deep and getting him to do a lot of defensive work in sustainable and what he enjoys doing, but props to him for a very strong second half vs. Barca.
Alright guys, prepare photos and other stuff of girls you think are hotter/uglier than this one. We meet here at 20:00 CET.
Looking back at Real Madrid's statistics this past season, there is one that positively jumps off the page. The member of the 'Los Blancos' squad who made the most appearances in the 2013-14 campaign was... Isco. The ex-Málaga man played in 53 matches during his first year at the Bernabéu, more than any of his teammates. This comes as quite a surprise because, although the young playmaker proved decisive at times, there were patches of the campaign when Carlo Ancelotti seemed to have forgotten about him altogether. But the stats don't lie and indeed often serve to bust myths. In actual fact, Isco took part in over 88% of Real's 60 fixtures this season. His nearest challengers were Benzema and Di María on 52 appearances, followed by Ramos and Modric on 51. However, of the 53 games he featured in, the 22-year-old only started in 35, racking up 3,165 minutes of action in all. This means he enjoyed 18 outings off the bench, a figure surpassed only by Casemiro (21), Illarramendi (22) and Morata (28).
I'm not sure it's as eye opening or "myth busting" as that article would like to suggest since appearances includes starts and subs and I bet if you were to look back a good chunk of those sub appearances were 10 minutes or less and a good number of those starts had him hauled off prematurely. Maybe my recollection of events is off though...
The number of minutes is actually surprising. Average minutes per appearance is roughly 60 minutes which is not bad at all. Hopefully we'll see more of him next year.
I did it a few months ago, amazing decision. Wore glasses for 8 years, now crispy clean Good for him.