As comparisons go, being favourably likened to the
legendary Zinedine Zidane is hard to beat.
That's what happened to Real Madrid midfielder Isco
last week, when Spanish sports paper Marca produced
a set of statistics to suggest the former Malaga star's
first few games with Los Blancos proved him to be a
more effective player than the French maestro, who is
now an assistant to Carlo Ancelotti at the Bernabeu.
For once, the hype was at least partially justified. In his
first six games in the famous white shirt, Isco scored
five goals, provided two assists and generally controlled
the midfield with a fabulous combination of relentless
energy, mazy dribbling and accurate passing.
Not bad for a 21-year-old new arrival seeking to make
his mark at one of the biggest clubs in the world.
Asked about the comparison with his assistant, boss
Ancelotti chuckled: "I asked Zidane if he agrees and he
said 'No, not yet. But he could be very close in the
future'.
"He is very similar in terms of ability and mentality. For
Isco to be compared with Zidane is not bad after the
few games he has played."
Isco rose to international prominence with Malaga last
season, playing a starring role in the Andalusian club's
unlikely progression to the quarter-finals of the
Champions League, where they came an injury-time
offside goal away from ousting eventual runners-up
Borussia Dortmund.
The midfielder's outstanding performances earned him
the 2012 Golden Boy award for the best young player
in Europe, and also inevitably sparked serious interest
from many of Europe's leading clubs - including
Manchester City, whose new coach Manuel Pellegrini
tried desperately hard to take Isco with him from
Malaga to Lancashire.
In the end, though, a personal phone call from Zidane
while Isco was on under-21 duty during Spain's
triumphant European Championship campaign this
summer was enough to do the trick and persuade him
to join Madrid for €30m - a fee that is already looking
like a bargain.
Aside from Isco's undoubted magnificence, however,
not everything is rosy at the Bernabeu as Ancelotti's
men prepare to welcome high-flying local rivals Atletico
for Saturday night's Madrid derby.
Although there have been some scintillating passages of
play, the general level of Real's performances has been
far from convincing and they have not yet settled into a
discernible playing method under their new Italian
manager.
That was especially the case in their most recent outing
on Wednesday night, when they laboured to an
exceptionally fortunate 2-1 victory at newly promoted
Elche thanks to a controversial penalty by Cristiano
Ronaldo, awarded by referee Cesar Muniz Fernandez in
the fourth minute of added time even though only
three additional minutes had been signalled.
After Wednesday's poor performance, Ancelotti
admitted: "If we play like that, we won't win the
derby." And among the former Chelsea manager's chief
concerns is his team's worrying habit of starting games
slowly - they have conceded first in three of their six
league games and could have easily done so again at
Elche.
Another big worry for Ancelotti is the decidedly
underwhelming form of striker Karim Benzema, whose
struggles at international level - he hasn't scored for
France since June 2012 - are now starting to be
transferred to his club outings.
Benzema has registered just two league goals so far this
season and has been jeered by significant sections of
the Bernabeu crowd.
Although Ancelotti has stayed loyal, insisting he remains
happy with the Frenchman's contributions, there are
growing calls for youngster Alvaro Morata to be
elevated into the starting line-up. If Benzema doesn't
resume scoring soon, that will surely happen.
At the other end of the pitch, Ancelotti has to deal with
an ongoing goalkeeping controversy following his
decision to continue the policy of predecessor Jose
Mourinho by favouring Diego Lopez over club captain
Iker Casillas, who remains revered by the club's global
legion of fans.
Although Lopez has done absolutely nothing to warrant
losing his place - on the contrary, he has made a series
spectacular saves, especially to salvage a 2-2 draw at
Villarreal - the issue remains a ticking time-bomb
waiting to explode as soon as Lopez makes his first
costly mistake.
And then there's Gareth Bale. The Welshman was
forced to pull out of his scheduled home debut after
suffering a minor thigh injury during the warm-up of
last weekend's meeting with Getafe, and it's uncertain
whether he'll recover in time for Saturday's derby.
Even if he does regain fitness, Ancelotti will be reluctant
to drop his rival for the right wing berth, Angel Di
Maria, who has responded to Bale's arrival by
producing an excellent run of form.
Despite their problems, Madrid can at least still rely on
their best and most important player - Ronaldo. The
incredibly consistent Portuguese star is continuing to
deliver the goods, already scoring 13 goals for club and
country this season - including seven in just three
games since signing a new five-year contract.
Amidst all the talk about the hosts, however, it would
be wrong to overlook visiting Atletico. Diego Simeone's
mightily impressive team are coming into the derby
boasting a 100% record in La Liga, and also started
their long-awaited Champions League campaign with a
3-1 victory over Zenit St Petersburg.
Their biggest - and most surprising - asset has been
Brazilian striker Diego Costa, who has emerged in
magnificent style to fill the considerable gap left by the
summer departure of leading scorer Radamel Falcao to
Monaco.
Until recently, Costa was better known for his
notoriously aggressive and confrontational style of play
rather than his goalscoring exploits, but he looks more
focused this season and currently sits alongside
Barcelona's Lionel Messi atop the La Liga scoring charts
with seven goals - a significant improvement in his
goals-per-game ratio for a player who has never
previously registered more than 10 league goals in a
season.
But Atletico's success has been about far more than
Costa's power, and the loss of Falcao seems to have
allowed them to become a more rounded, less one-
dimensional team. Freed from the burden of servicing
the requirements of their star striker, there is now a
greater fluidity and sense of expression to their
attacking play, with creative wide midfielders Koke and
Arda Turan particularly benefitting.
Real are still favourites for Saturday's encounter, of
course, and history is very much on their side because
they boast a 23-game, 14-year unbeaten run against
their local rivals in the league. Indeed, the last time
Atletico beat Real in La Liga, Simeone was in the middle
of his outstanding playing career and had fairly recently
goaded David Beckham into his infamous red card at
the 1998 World Cup Finals.
In terms of form, however, Atletico are clearly the team
to beat. They also have fresh memories of their
exhilarating Copa del Rey final triumph over Real in
May, which proved they can indeed win at the
Bernabeu (even if they needed extra time to do so).
So the game could go either way. But despite their
team's patchy performances to date, Real Madrid fans
are increasingly confident of their team's chances of
success for one simple reason: they have Isco.
If he inspires his team to victory again on Saturday,
even Zidane might be ready to pay homage.
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