Isco in the midst of another baffling season at Real Madrid
The playmaker remains a perplexing figure for club and country following another stop-start campaign at Madrid and the loss of his place in the Spain squad.
For Real Madrid's Isco this is another puzzling season, his seventh in a Madrid shirt, that swings between injuries and falling in and out of favour with Zidane. The Madrid playmaker has featured in 104 minutes out of a possible 900, a trend that has seen his time on the pitch generally wane since he joined the club from Málaga for 30 million euros in the summer of 2013. Since then, the number of minutes played in each season reads: 58%, 71%, 56%, 42%, 53%, 33% and, finally, 11% in this campaign.
Another chance against Mallorca
Isco will have a fresh chance to play against Mallorca on Saturday night, with a place up for grabs due to the absence of Modric, Lucas Vázquez and Kroos through injury. The man from Málaga has not played a prominent role in the side since picking up a hamstring injury on 28 August; previous to that he had only played 15 minutes on the opening day of the season against Celta and had started against Valladolid in the following fixture. After recovering from his injury he was left warming the bench against Club Brugge in the Champions League and came on for the last 20 minutes of the match against Granada, when the game was still in the balance.
Dropped from the Spain squad
Moreover, Isco's erratic season saw him dropped by Spain coach Robert Robert Moreno for La Roja's recent Euro qualifiers. Now the challenge for the 27-year-old - theroetically in his prime - is to play his way back into the Spain side, adding to his 38 appearences, to play at Euro 2020.