Some critics have taken to calling Eden Hazard the 'part-time Galactico' in Spain but Zinedine Zidane has a plan to finally start getting the best out of his failing Belgian international.
Hazard has played on the left of a front three at Real Madrid since he arrived at the club but the French coach wants him centre stage between now and the end of the season – it worked last weekend against Alaves when he popped up with a goal and an assist and he is ready to repeat the experiment as Real Madrid take on Levante.
Madrid will still start with Hazard left of Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio on the right completing the front three ahead of tried and trusted midfield trio Luka Modric, Casemiro and Toni Kroos. But the 30-year-old former Chelsea forward has complete freedom to wander in field and Zidane wants him central as often as possible operating close to Benzema.
That's where he was twice in the first half of last week's game and from there he set-up Benzema with a deft flick and scored himself from a Kroos pass. French full-back Ferland Mendy is then left with the whole left flank to himself in Zidane's new look system.
When Madrid start to play out from the back Zidane even wants Modric or Kroos dropping into a line with the team's two centre backs so that the full-backs – Mendy on the left and Dani Carvajal on the right – can take positions high up the pitch as Hazard and Asensio look to support Benzema through the middle.
Zidane is determined to make the so-far disastrous €120million (£106m) gamble on Hazard pay-off. He has even jettisoned 20-year-old Brazil winger Vinicius Junior to make sure the team works around Hazard. Vinicius has not started a league game since the start of December.
That 'part-time Galactico' quip was the title of one column in Diario AS on Friday and underlines the huge disappointment in the way Hazard has performed so far.
His failure to be in the right shape since his arrival in the summer of 2019 has been described as 'intolerable in an institution like Real Madrid'. Injuries have been hard on him, but the verdict has been that he has also not helped himself.
The second half of Zidane's plan to make his Eden project work is to err on the side of caution regarding his fitness. Last week, despite how well Hazard was playing he was still taken off midway through the second half to protect him physically.
But this week, after seven days of rest because of Real Madrid having already been knocked out of the cup, supporters are expecting him not just to play well once more, but to play the full 90 minutes.
Not since November 23, 2019 has he played a full game. It was 433 days ago when he started the 3-1 win over Real Sociedad at the Bernabeu and finished the game still on the pitch.
It was in his next match, a Champions League game against PSG, that he injured himself after a challenge with Thomas Meunier and found himself sidelined and eventually needing surgery on his right ankle.
He has only played in 22 games since but in none of them has he played a full 90 minutes.
His most disappointing performance since then was the post-lockdown Champions League defeat away at Manchester City where he failed to stamp his authority on the game and stop Real Madrid limping out of the tournament.
That cost Real Madrid important prize money and Hazard's failure to deliver in those big games has not gone unnoticed at the club who made him their huge summer signing a year and a half ago.
With the market deflated and Hazard's value having plummeted since he signed they have little alternative but to hope that he can finally find his old Chelsea form. Zidane has a plan and Levante at home on Saturday will be the next test to see if it can work.