kroos had an impresive game against sevilla. with his passing accuracy, he was good. but he was dribbled past most of the time. his interceptions werent all that good. on the average, i will mark him over 70%. james too had a quiet but impressive game. a barca fan by the way but love this madrid team

His inexperience at CDM will show throughout the season. Likely in situations where he is being pressed. I don't see him as the type of midfielder who will go and chase after a player on the ball to try to win it. He just sits in the same slot for the course of the game.

I don't know bc we haven't really seen him any sustained pressure yet. He basically had free reign in the dlp role bc Sevilla sat very deep in their own half.

Awful, City rang rings around at the Allianz last year. Toure pushed through him like he wasn't even there and Silva took it around him with ease.

he was playing as a DLP not a DM

4 tackles and 96% pass rate and 13 long balls successful out of 14 suggests he did very well

he wasn't playing as a defensive midfielder.

more of a deep lying playmaker

bq: James is being wasted as a CM

I thought he was great against sevilla and only missed 3 passes. Do you think he will take over xabi's place? i know this is not his natural position tho and sevilla did not really pressure him. Your thoughts?

bq: thoughts on james? I thought he was a bit nervous and looks like he has to get accustomed to the 4-3-3 formation but i did like that he tracked back a lot.