Well-Rested Toni Kroos Could Give Real Madrid Clasico Edge over Barcelona

Toni Kroos had an unfamiliar experience during Real Madrid’s win at home to Levante last weekend.

The Germany international had started all of Madrid’s previous 26 league matches, playing nearly 97 percent (2,262 minutes, as per Soccerway) of the available minutes. But on Sunday he was left out of the starting XI and watched on from the bench for the full 90 minutes.

The reason was simple: A fifth booking of the season would have ruled him out of this weekend’s Clasico against Barcelona. The upside is that Kroos, who has displayed signs of tiredness since the turn of the year, will arrive at the Camp Nou refreshed and ready to contribute.

The 25-year-old has been heavily employed in all competitions since joining Madrid from Bayern Munich last summer. He has played 3,440 minutes of football across the six tournaments the club have competed in this season.

Per Marco Ruiz of AS, prior to the current campaign, the highest number of minutes Kroos had played in one season was 3,433 for Bayern back in 2011-12. That figure has already been surpassed and there are still a couple of months of the season left to play.

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Not only is he playing more, but he is also covering more distance than he did at Bayern.

Per Diego Torres of El Pais (in Spanish), data recorded during UEFA and FIFA competitions shows that Kroos covered 125 metres-per-minute at Bayern last season and 120 metres-per-minute with Germany at last summer’s World Cup. That figure has increased to 128 metres-per-minute since he joined Madrid.

“I have never played more games in my life,” Kroos told German reporters, as per El Pais (h/t ESPN FC), in the wake of Madrid’s Champions League win away to Basel in November. “I am starting to get tired.”

Rest has, however, rarely been provided to him in the subsequent months. Per J. L. Guerrero of AS, Kroos said that he felt fine prior to the match away to Schalke in mid-February, but his performance levels do appear to have dropped in the aftermath of that fixture.

This was best illustrated by his performance in his last league start, in the defeat away to Athletic Bilbao earlier this month. Per Whoscored.com, Kroos completed just 86.8 percent of his passes—well below his seasonal average of 92.3 percent.

The Madrid supporter blog, Managing Madrid, gave him a score of 4.5 out of 10, and described him as “perhaps the most visible victim of Carlo Ancelotti’s lack of rotation policy.”

The sharpness of his passing and his ability to cover the swathes of space that often open up in the Madrid midfield have both been reduced as tiredness has begun to take its toll.

But the booking he picked up against Athletic, alongside the return from injury of Luka Modric, finally saw Kroos provided with some much-needed rest in the build-up to the Clasico.

The German midfielder performed impressively in Madrid’s 3-1 victory over Barcelona at the Bernabeu earlier this season. He was a key part of the midfield four who dominated their Barcelona counterparts, making more passes (60, as per WhoScored) than any other player.

He also provided the assist for the second Madrid goal, headed home by Pepe from a right-wing corner.

And he very much enjoyed the overall experience of his first Clasico.

“I’ll never forgot arriving at the Bernabeu on the coach and the marvellous atmosphere when the stadium celebrated the goals,” he said in an interview with the German press (h/t Marca). “Without doubt it is one of the most amazing matches in the whole world.”

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Kroos is the only one of Madrid’s likely starters this weekend who has not previously played at the Camp Nou. Sunday will therefore be another new experience for the 25-year-old, who has settled well in Madrid and provided plenty of good contributions throughout the season. He has taken well to a deeper role, while his passing range and coolness in possession have been highly impressive.

With a week of rest under his belt and Modric once again at his side—after 134 days apart, as per Marco Ruiz of AS—a sprightly Kroos could be enough to tip the balance in Madrid’s favour.