Luka Modric / Signs for Real Madrid

RooneyLegend said:

Nope, Modric was easily the best player on the pitch in the first leg against bayern and was behind di maria in the final and there's no shame in that.

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No! Alonso was the best player against Bayern in the Bernabeu, don't know how that can even be doubted!

RooneyLegend said:

Just as good, criminal that we didn't throw the bank to Spurs for him.

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He was the one. In Harry Redknapp's book he says that Sir Alex called him everyday for about a week from the day City won the title, asking him to name his price.

I'd have been happy if we spent 40 - 50 million pounds on him that summer.

RM also had one of the best and most balanced midfields last season with Alonso/Di Maria/Modric. I can only think of a similar strong one in recent history with Xavi/Busquets/Iniesta for Barca and Xavi/Xabi/Busquets for Spain in their highdays.

Let's see how Modric does this season.

united_99 said:

RM also had one of the best and most balanced midfields last season with Alonso/Di Maria/Modric. I can only think of a similar strong one in recent history with Xavi/Busquets/Iniesta for Barca and Xavi/Xabi/Busquets for Spain in their highdays.

Let's see how Modric does this season.

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He was excellent yesterday, albeit against weak opposition (with respect to Basel). He has not been at his best this year and IMO that is because his role has changed from last year. He has to play deeper and has more responsibility to defend now than he did last year as Alonso and Di Maria are gone and Kroos cannot be relied on to do all the defensive work as he is not the best at defending. Due to this he cannot be as influential as he was last year. With all of the defensive work he has to do, his creativeness and attacking play is being limited.

With Kroos and Modric in midfield, there is a bit of a similar problem to Croatia's at the WC with Modric and Rakatic in midfield together. They are not good enough defensively so it leaves the team vulnerable in the middle and like I said earlier, their attacking play and creativity suffers due to all of their defensive responsibilities, them playing deeper than they would like to be and the fact that they cannot get forward with the freedom that they would lie to as they have to worry about getting back to cover.

All indications seem to be that Ancelotti is going to keep trying to make this midfield work. My only hope is remembering years ago when Alonso first came and people constantly said he had to have a defensive-minded destroyer like Mascherano next to him to be effective. Fast-forward a bit and suddenly he is/was regarded as our main defensive midfielder and a player we have no balance when playing without. Going by the fact that Ancelotti doesn't seem to trust Illarramendi much (he started Khedira in the CL final after being injured for so long over him) I am assuming that he is hoping that Modric or Kroos will become the player Alonso was for us and be able to protect our defence. I don't have much hope in that happening though it has to be said.

united_99 said:

RM also had one of the best and most balanced midfields last season with Alonso/Di Maria/Modric. I can only think of a similar strong one in recent history with Xavi/Busquets/Iniesta for Barca and Xavi/Xabi/Busquets for Spain in their highdays.

Let's see how Modric does this season.

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Xavi/Xabi/Busquets wasn't that balanced in my view. Spain used it because del Bosque liked the defensive protection it offered but going forward they weren't as effective as they could have been if they dropped Iniesta back into midfield and got rid of the double pivot.

Bob Loblaw said:

Xavi/Xabi/Busquets wasn't that balanced in my view. Spain used it because del Bosque liked the defensive protection it offered but going forward they weren't as effective as they could have been if they dropped Iniesta back into midfield and got rid of the double pivot.

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Well it worked for them, they always were in control and knew someone would score one goal somehow which was enough! It's no coincidence that once Xabi and Xavi's best days were over Spain failed to impress in any way or shape.

united_99 said:

Well it worked for them, they always were in control and knew someone would score one goal somehow which was enough! It's no coincidence that once Xabi and Xavi's best days were over Spain failed to impress in any way or shape.

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Yeah they controlled games and it helped them defensively, agree with you there. Just don't think it was as balanced as the other midfield trios you named, or even as balanced as Spain's own midfield at Euro 2008. If Real Madrid's midfield this season is seen to be too attacking I'd argue that double pivot was too cautious.

Like with a lot of del Bosque's decisions though, it might have been questionable but it's tough to argue with the results.

Invictus said:

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They aren't being facetious. It's not appraisal or general hearsay but honest opinion.

Have they said the same of any other central midfielder though ? Did Guardiola call Wilshere the best young midfielder he'd ever seen when asked about him ? Did Xavi call anyone else the best midfielder of the last 15-20 years ? Nope. He said there were others he admired - including United's own Keane and Ince. But never the best midfielder overall, never a reference point for himself.

Loads of people have been asked about Modric. They never called him that. Infact opposition managers reserve more praise for Alonso at Madrid. Because he was the focal point of their team, not Luka.

Anyway this is it. There's no point continuing it further because then it'll only go in concentric circles. I can't prove anything because of a clear disconnect how we rate midfielders and Scholes' dearth of individual awards. Which isn't the best barometer for measuring a central midfielder or defender's worth.

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Obviously in the grand scheme of things, Scholes would definitely be considered the better player, both for his ability and his longevity at the top, that part is undeniable.

You don't get that many quotes from coaches and players alike about Xavi, Pirlo, Iniesta, does that mean that Scholes is better? I could also easily find quotes from Sir Alex praising Modric and comparing him to Scholes. I hate when people just throw out these quotes which we have seen like a million times when they get into a discussion regarding Scholes. It is such a lazy way a debate.

The discussion started because someone made an ability comparison between him and Scholes and got instantly slammed as being ridiculous. And then you came in with the assertion that Scholes has been consistently a top 3 player for us for the past two decade and that Modric's top level is Scholes' median - all of it obviously not true. I think anyone with a football mind could see that Modric's top-level is close to Scholes'. He already had a season as good as anything Scholes has produced.

Bob Loblaw said:

Yeah they controlled games and it helped them defensively, agree with you there. Just don't think it was as balanced as the other midfield trios you named, or even as balanced as Spain's own midfield at Euro 2008. If Real Madrid's midfield this season is seen to be too attacking I'd argue that double pivot was too cautious.

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Kind of agree. But Alonso and Busquets posess(ed) a lot of attacking and passing ability though compared to most others in their pisition, it's not as they are De Jong and Flamini playing together. That's also a reason it actually worked so well imo.

Fabregas is better than Modric

thepolice123 said:

Honestly, using appraisals about him to support your claims isn't the most convincing of arguments because they were just speaking generally, I believe they would have good things to say about Modric if asked because Modric is hugely talented as well.

I don't deny that he's our best midfielder but saying that he's consistently a top 3 player for us in every season he's played in is a little ridiculous and doing the players who have performed better a major discredit. Beckham, Keane, Stam, Yorke were all definitely better and more influential than him our treble winning season. Between 07-09 when we had our most successful run in Europe ever, Rio, Ronaldo, Carrick, Vidic and Evra were all by far the standout performers. Even Carrick and Fletcher outshone him in the same period. The only period when he really stake his claim as one of our most influential player and a "dangerman" was probably from the turn of the century to the mid 00s. The same period when we were going a decline and transition, which was a bit of a shame for him. He came back from his career threatening eye-injury in 2006 and was probably the best midfielder in the world that season. After 07/08 he already had one foot in retirement and used sparingly by Fergie. The 06/07 season was the last time he would hit 40+ appearances for us. I believe if we answered our midfield issues then, Scholes would have retired earlier. The fact that he went on for another 4-5 years was a testament to how bad our midfield woes were.

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He does have a point here.

At the moment he can't be compared to Scholes but we'll see what he does with the last 5-6 years of his career, then compare the two.