3 Real Madrid Players Whose Stock Tumbled in 2015-16 Season

Another year, another season of turbulence: There were always going to be casualties. 

Amid a characteristically chaotic campaign at Real Madrid in 2015-16, there were a number of players who endured damaging seasons and whose stock took a resultant tumble. James Rodriguez is the obvious one, of course, but there are others too. 

Others such as Isco.

Such as Danilo.

At the end of 2015-16, the positions of those men look considerably weaker.  

Here we run through them.

James Rodriguez

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James Rodriguez started the season like this:

• Exquisite curling assist for Gareth Bale.
• Thunderous free-kick goal from a tight angle.
• Stunning goal with a bicycle kick.

Remember that? The visuals? The sensations?

That all unfolded in the space of an hour against Real Betis at the Santiago Bernabeu in late August, a performance that felt like a forerunner for where James was headed. And it was only nine months ago. 

What on earth has happened?

Set against that display, the nature of what has unfolded in the proceeding nine months is difficult to comprehend. At the beginning of the season, the Colombian looked like the heir apparent to Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of being the face of the team, yet he now looks like this: dejected, flat, peripheral and almost forgotten.

If anything, James' case is perhaps a reminder of how circumstances can be everything. Because of his involvement in last summer's Copa America, he returned to the squad late. Then he got injured. Then he watched from the sidelines as Rafa Benitez attempted to give the team a more powerful profile, shifting it away from the dynamic James' arrival in 2014 had brought about.

And he's never recovered.

In the league, he started only 17 of Madrid's 38 games, his highlights scarce. In the UEFA Champions League, it's three of 12.

"From Ballon d'Or to barn door," said AS. 

Isco

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Along with James, AS dubbed him one of the "problem kids."  

For Isco, 2015-16 has been a similar story. 

Stylistically, the Spaniard always looked likely to clash with the ideas of Benitez, and that's exactly how it transpired. Slight and technical, the playmaker embodied the collective essence Benitez wanted to move away from and thus became a systematic issue. 

At times, Isco was used as a member of a central trio; at others, it was as a No. 10; on a handful of occasions, it was as a makeshift wide man. Throughout, the sense was Benitez would have preferred not to use him at all, and when December arrived, he didn't. 

For a month, Isco played 12 minutes. 

In January, the appointment of Zinedine Zidane changed things for the 24-year-old, but the Madrid derby in late February represented a before-and-after point for both he and James. That was the day Atletico Madrid thwarted and sucker-punched Real in the most familiar fashion—and the game after which Zidane promised change.

Isco has been relegated into a secondary existence ever since. Just like James. 

Danilo

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When Danilo was unveiled at the Bernabeu last summer, it wasn't the sort of grand event Real Madrid have often staged. There was no 50,000-strong crowd. Instead, roughly 600 fans were present to welcome the Brazilian, and even for them he wasn't the focus.

"De Gea, De Gea," they chanted that afternoon. 

Retrospectively, that suddenly looks symbolic: Even back then, they wanted the other guy. They still do. 

Now, of course, the other guy is not David De Gea; specifically to Danilo's case, it's Dani Carvajal—and it's not hard to understand why.

All season, Carvajal has looked like one of Europe's finest full-backs but has been forced to split playing time with the vastly inferior Danilo, all because of price tags and politics.

In signing the Brazilian from FC Porto, Madrid splashed out a colossal €31.5 million, a sum that makes him the most expensive defender in the club's history and has exerted a political pressure on his managers to play him against form and logic.

Consistently, despite his attacking qualities, Danilo has been exposed defensively, the roll call of wingers who've taken advantage rather extensive: Nolito, Yevhen Konoplyanka, Neymar, Julian Draxler, Rodrigo and Bebe just to name some. 

The whole issue was highlighted intensely at Real Betis, and it was evident again away to Wolfsburg. More recently, Zidane has settled on Carvajal for the biggest occasions, but the simple presence of such a self-imposed headache is indicative of Real Madrid's habit for getting in their own way.