The situation
A month and a half ago their mutual best friend moved to another city and now the two of them see each other less and less. The simultaneous presence of Modric and Kroos in Carlo Ancelotti’s starting eleven has been significantly reduced at this start of the season in which the Holy Trinity that they formed together with Casemiro disintegrated . The three formed together in the starting eleven that won the European Super Cup. Then, since the Brazilian left for Manchester, the Croatian and the German have only started three more matches. Ancelotti, in addition to the Super Cup, has only started them in key games: against Espanyol (in a league visit that last season choked the whites), in the Champions League debut against Celtic and in the derby against Atletico . In six other games, one or the other has seen from the bench how his once inseparable partner started the game on the pitch. In Getafe the starter was Modric after having missed the two previous games in which the starter was Kroos. Against Osasuna, the Balkan was not even called up because he returned from the national team break with some discomfort in his hip and against Shakhtar, although he was already on the list, Carletto reserved him. Modric (37 years old) started without Kroos against Celta (the German did not travel to Vigo due to flu), Betis and RB Leipzig.
The details
The German (32) started without the Croatian against Mallorca and the two most recent games against Osasuna and Shakhtar. Of the ten games in which both have been in the call, they have only played together from the start in four (40%). Being both on the list, they did not coincide so little in the starting eleven since 2019-20 , when Zidane only started them in 21 of 41 games (51.2%). In their other seven seasons at Madrid, they have always posed for the photo of the starting team in more than 70% of the games. In their first year together, they barely met in 22 games, but it happened because a thigh injury kept Modric out for almost four months .