Why It Is Now or Never for Asier Illarramendi at Real Madrid

Asier Illarramendi will have an opportunity to prove his worth to Real Madrid with a starting role in Saturday’s match at home to his former club, Real Sociedad.

Last week, the 24-year-old seemed to be on his way out of the Bernabeu. Madrid added to their midfield options with the purchase of Lucas Silva from Cruzeiro, while Athletic Bilbao lodged a €25 million bid for his services.

Yet he has instead chosen to stay and fight for his place. Per Jaime Martin of Marca, he told Athletic “thanks, but no thanks,” and has therefore been training normally with the Madrid squad ahead of Saturday’s fixture.

And his professionalism will be rewarded with a place in the starting XI against La Real. Carlo Ancelotti confirmed as much at his pre-match press conference on Friday, as per Managing Madrid.

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Illarramendi will play tomorrow. It’s true that Illarramendi had an offer from Bilbao, but he’s comfortable here and he decided to stay. We’re happy with him and how professional his behaviour is.

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With Silva lying in wait on the bench (albeit not in peak condition), Illarramendi will know that he needs to make a strong impression in order to carve out a role for himself during the final months of the season.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

The 24-year-old has largely been used as a substitute during the current campaign. He has averaged 34.31 minutes per appearance in La Liga and 42.86 minutes per appearance in all competitions, as per data from Soccerway.

Those figures compare unfavourably to his involvement last season in his first year in Madrid. Then, he averaged 47.86 minutes per appearance in La Liga and 50.57 minutes per appearance in all competitions.

The summer departure of Xabi Alonso had seemed to open the way to greater involvement for Illarramendi, but Ancelotti has instead found alternative solutions. Isco and James Rodriguez have been repurposed as central midfielders, while Toni Kroos has taken quickly to Alonso’s role as the deep-lying distributor.

Even during the absence of Luka Modric through injury, Illarramendi has barely had a look in.

Paul White/Associated Press

Per Diego Torres of El Pais (in Spanish), Ancelotti lost some of his confidence in the midfielder following his poor performance in the second leg of Madrid’s Champions League quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund last April.

Illarramendi was substituted at half-time after Madrid had seen their three-goal first-leg advantage reduced to one during the opening 45 minutes of play. He struggled to deal with Dortmund’s heavy pressing and gave the ball away in the build-up to the second goal.

It was a chastising experience, and one from which he has never fully recovered. Robbed of the opportunity to restore his confidence with a run of starts, he has flickered briefly but never looked the same assured distributor he was in his days in San Sebastian.

With this in mind, it is difficult to make sense of his decision to stay in Madrid when Athletic are offering him regular first-team football and the chance to rebuild his career in his native Basque Country.

If Silva is able to swiftly get himself up to speed, the minutes available to Illarramendi are likely to be further reduced. With Casemiro performing so impressively on loan at FC Porto, it is hard to imagine that the situation will be any better for him next season.

But if Illarramendi does genuinely envisage a future for himself at Madrid, then Saturday’s match against the club where he was raised represents a now-or-never opportunity to make his case.