January looks prime time for Spurs to table fresh playmaker bid

Based on what made Isco such a highly-regarded playmaker during his late teenage years with Malaga, he should have been an ideal inclusion into a Real Madrid side attempting to get the best from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo’s preferred role is to start from the left where he is less closely marked and then regularly make diagonal runs into the penalty box. Despite his starting position, he actually has little impact in the wide areas.

To help make this work to its maximum, a striker capable of working unselfishly to keep both opposing central defenders busy and simultaneously dragging them up the pitch is useful.

So is an attacking midfielder who likes to make the opposite movements from Ronaldo, starting centrally and then making runs around the outside of defenders to cause confusion. Angel Di Maria was especially valuable at doing this for Real Madrid.

At Malaga, Isco often drifted wide and was adept at causing overloads in the final third with his attacking full-back and winger. But things haven’t ultimately worked out at the Bernabeu.

The 24-year-old did manage 30 starts across all competitions last year, contributing five goals and 10 assists. He was clear over the summer that he was staying at Real, despite apparent interest from the likes of Tottenham.

Yet this term, appearances have been sparse under Zinedine Zidane. Isco has made only two starts and five appearances for Los Blancos, with his minutes across all competitions totalling less than 200 so far.

With his contract up in 2018 and first-team opportunities limited as he competes for starts with James Rodriguez and talented youngster Marco Asensio, Isco may decide to renege on his summer stance in January.

He could generate a good partnership with Christian Eriksen at Spurs, who tends to play in the opposite fashion to Isco by starting out wide, but then drifting laterally into the central zones.

Isco would also add an additional dribbling threat, with none of Eriksen, Erik Lamela or Dele Alli reaching double figures for this statistic so far this season.

Tottenham’s odds to win the Premier League are currently 7/1 and Isco’s signature would only strengthen their squad towards this end goal.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing