Santiago Solari Says He Will Not Advise Isco on Regaining Place in Real Madrid First Team

Real Madrid boss Santiago Solari has stopped short of offering out of favour star Isco any advice on how best to negotiate his spell out of the first team at the Bernabeu.

The Spain international is enduring a difficult recent period in which he has fallen out of favour and largely out of the picture for Los Blancos under interim manager Solari, having yet to start a game under the former Madrid winger.

Reports have subsequently linked Isco with a move away from the European champions. Despite having experienced similar struggles during his time as a Madrid player, Solari insisted, via Goal: “I’m not the one to advise anyone.

“These players have a lot of experience and many titles. A footballer who comes into the first team and has been around so long has all the experience necessary to know what they have to do.

“They are young people, but also others with a lot of experience.”

Quality Sport Images/GettyImages

Reports have surfaced linking Isco with a move to Serie A giants Juventus amid the 26-year-old’s recent run out of the Madrid side. Such a move would see the Spaniard link up with former Los Blancos forward Cristiano Ronaldo once more in Turin.

Asked whether Isco’s potential departure would be to the benefit of his squad, Solari added: “There are 24 players and they are all important, and they will continue to be.

“We have three competitions and they are all important. Tomorrow at Betis we will try to cut the points to those at the top of La Liga.”

Isco has only featured in 13 of Madrid’s 18 league matches this term but could be handed his first opportunity to start under Solari against Real Betis on Sunday, with Los Blancos facing a blight of injury problems.

Longer-term absentees Gareth Bale and Marco Asensio have been joined on the side-lines by Thibaut Courtois, Toni Kroos and Marcos Llorente, whilst Lucas Vazquez will also miss out at the Benito Villamarin Stadium through suspension following his red card last weekend.

Young attacking stars Vinicius Junior and Mariano Diaz are also fitness doubts for Sunday’s match, and Solari added: “There are many injuries, but we are going to try to shorten the recovery periods because we need them all.”

With a significant shortage of injury problems and a poor run of form major issues for Madrid, Isco could finally get the chance to make his mark under Solari on Sunday.