Why Toni Kroos Should Fill the James Rodriguez Void at Real Madrid

Toni Kroos should be given more freedom to join the Real Madrid attack in the absence of his injured team-mate James Rodriguez.

Rodriguez has enjoyed a very solid first season at the Bernabeu following his big-money move from Monaco last summer. Per WhoScored.com, he has accumulated nine goals and eight assists in league and Champions League play.

Despite largely playing in a deeper role than that to which he was previously accustomed, the 23-year-old has made a direct contribution to a goal every 111 minutes.

However, as per AS (h/t ESPN FC), reports suggest the Colombian international will be out of action for up to eight weeks after breaking the fifth metatarsal of his right foot in the 2-1 win over Sevilla last Wednesday. With no like-for-like stand-in available, Carlo Ancelotti will be forced to find alternative solutions in the coming weeks.

Madrid’s is not a squad constructed with a clear philosophy or style of football in mind. While it is clearly beneficial to have some variety at your disposal, the lack of direct replacements for certain players does require some tinkering from Ancelotti when injuries and suspensions take hold.

Fabio Coentrao and Marcelo are broadly similar full-backs but the former lacks the latter’s ability to move infield and link with the midfielders; none of the reserve right-backs are as energetic and forward-thinking as Dani Carvajal, while Javier Hernandez is a completely different kind of striker to Karim Benzema.

Even the two goalkeepers, Iker Casillas and Keylor Navas, have distinct styles.

Midfield is actually one of the few areas of the squad in which Ancelotti usually has two good options for each type of player.

He has two well-rounded creative midfielders (Kroos and Luka Modric), one of whom (Kroos) has been converted into a pivot; two attacking midfielders (Isco and Rodriguez), both converted into box-to-box operators; two controlling midfielders who need another defensive midfielder alongside them (Asier Illarramendi and Lucas Silva); and a robust box-to-box player who seems to have lost his drive (Sami Khedira).

The problem is that injuries have now robbed him of not just Rodriguez but Modric and Khedira too.

Daniel Tejedor/Associated Press

Twenty-year-old Alvaro Medran could be an interesting option, but Ancelotti is not a coach with a history of showing great faith in youth-team products. We can therefore assume that one of Illarramendi or Silva will start in their upcoming matches.

With few options to choose from, Ancelotti should seek to shift some of the attacking responsibility onto Kroos by releasing him from the single pivot position he has occupied for the majority of the campaign.

It is certainly an idea that would sit well with former Madrid midfielder and coach Bernd Schuster. Last November, he explained to Enrique Ortego of Marca that he still felt Kroos operated best in a more advanced role.

"

I still think that his best position, at least where I like him the most because his full potential can be exploited, is a little further up the pitch. When I played for Barca and Atletico I had a bodyguard behind me. I liked moving up the pitch a bit… I’d put a bodyguard behind Kroos, too.

"

There would clearly be risks involved. Per Diego Torres of El Pais (in Spanish), Ancelotti has little faith in Illarramendi’s ability to operate as the deepest-lying midfielder, while Silva has only just arrived, is still to reach peak fitness and has never before played in La Liga.

But even if it is just from time to time—as a surprise element—Madrid do need someone to move forward purposefully from midfield, make off-ball runs into the inside channels and provide more passing options in the final third.

Isco, Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo have formed an interesting triumvirate on the left-hand side of the pitch, with each of them varying their position in line with that of the others. Yet with Rodriguez, and his goal contribution, absent, Madrid need a little more incision over toward the right.

It is a role that Kroos is more than capable of fulfilling. Per WhoScored, take a look at the scope of his involvement in Germany’s 7-1 demolition of Brazil in last year’s World Cup semi-final:

Courtesy of WhoScored.com

Compare it with his more restricted role in Madrid’s away win over Cordoba in January:

Courtesy of WhoScored.com

Kroos’ shot numbers (1.1 per match) so far this season are lower than those in any of his previous campaigns as a professional, which indicates that he is getting forward much less regularly than before.

During the 2012-13 season at Bayern Munich, for instance, he scored six goals and provided eight assists in 1,937 minutes of action—a direct contribution to a goal every 138 minutes. This season, the interval between those contributions has increased to 240 minutes.

The 25-year-old has been very impressive in the pivot position—"He has aced his crash course in replacing Xabi Alonso," Ancelotti admitted in an interview with Onda Cero radio (h/t Marca) last November—and should return to that position once Modric or Rodriguez returns from injury.

But with both absent, Ancelotti should give Kroos more license to get forward and influence matters in the final third.