Real Madrid Transfer News & Rumors: Is Illarramendi Ready to Replace Xabi Alonso?

The departure of Xabi Alonso has left a huge void in Real Madrid's midfield.

As noted in a previous post, Alonso's contributions to Real Madrid were diverse. He was an excellent defensive player, but also provided a great deal of depth moving forward.

Madrid's performances during the early part of 2013-14 were largely erratic due to a lack of balance. The attack was solid at times, but lacked consistent bite at other times. When Alonso returned, Madrid went undefeated for months. When he was again unavailable in the Champions League final, the team struggled.

There is unfortunately no natural replacement among the team's top starters. Toni Kroos is expected to fill the void. He is a tremendous passer on the same level as the Spanish veteran, but he is far from adequate defensively. With Alonso in the mix, the team could play a steady 4-3-3 with a single holding midfielder that could turn into an extra defenseman.

But without Alonso, the best solution would be a 4-2-3-1 that showcased Kroos and Luka Modric playing deeper. That obviously hurts both players as it forces them further away from the opposing penalty area, where they do their most damage.

The other major solution would be to use Asier Illarramendi as the direct replacement.

Illarramendi was purchased last summer to be the heir to Alonso. The 24-year-old is a defensive midfielder that theoretically should slot right into the spot that Alonso vacated. The problem is that he has yet to gain coach Carlo Ancelotti's trust.

Illarramendi played for Real Sociedad, where he had a two solid years. His defensive stats in each season were rather good. He put up an average of 3.4 tackles per game, 5.2 interceptions per game and 1.2 clearances per game in 2011-12. He played 18 matches in that year. Alonso's career average in tackles per game is 3.2 and his average interceptions per game is 2.4. He also averages 1.3 clearances per game over his career.

During the 2012-13 season, Illarramendi continued his strong play with 3.8 tackles per game and 1.6 clearances per game. His interceptions dropped radically from his unsustainable statistic a year early to a still solid 2.3 per game. He played 32 matches that year.

His performances admittedly made him an attractive player for Los Blancos and he was swept up. He played a total of 34 matches in both the Spanish League and Champions league. Of those games, he started 18 and came off the bench 16 times. In the Spanish League, he put up a solid 2.2 tackles per game while making 1.3 interceptions match. In all, he made two interceptions less than Alonso over the entire season, according to WhoScored. However, his clearances per game dropped to 0.4 per game. That is hardly a number worthy of a defensive player. For comparison's sake, Illarramendi's average clearances per game were the same as Modric's, who is admittedly not a defensive player. Both Modric and Illarramendi had 13 clearances overall while Alonso had 34.

Illarramendi was slightly worse than Alonso when it came to losing possession. He was dispossessed 13 times and created 12 turnovers. Alonso lost the ball 12 times over the whole season and caused just nine turnovers.

He also lacks the long-range passing skills, but his short-range passing success rate is quite similar to Alonso's. Both passed at about 89 percent success rate last season. However, Alonso passed the ball a lot more often then Illarramendi in far fewer games. While Alonso averaged 61 passes per game, the youngster only made about 36.1 passes per game.

And that is where Illarramendi might not fit into Ancelotti's plans. The youngster played more games than the veteran in Spain, but was not able to create as many passes as the now-departed veteran. Ancelotti wants to implement more of a passing game that requires more stringent possession. Illarramendi has never averaged more than 50.2 passes per game in a season. That output came in 2012-13 in arguably his best season yet. Alonso never averaged less than 58 passes per game in a season for Madrid. And that came five Champions League matches in 2012-13. Hardly a worthy sample size.

Looking at the bright side of things, Illarramendi should improve. He is only 24 and will be entering into his prime years. More time and an ability to adapt to the system will allow for him to gain more confidence and improve.

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