Ok, but now you're making it sound as if I said Modric was crap. No, he was very good, just not a standout big performer when compared with the type of magic players like Ronaldo, Ramos, Marcelo, and Navas produced. And Carvajal and Casemiro too.
Zidane's Madrid will go down as having a very direct and ruthlessly efficient wing-play style built on the best fullback pair in the world at the time in Carvajal and Marcelo (who was basically both a fullback and a winger), the best 16m box predators in the world in Ronaldo, Benzema and partly Bale, and a major leader in Ramos. Plus a clutch goalkeeper.
Only then we can talk about a very solid midfield. The most used pattern of play that the midfield executed perfectly was the long diagonal ball to fullbacks in space when teams went excessively narrow. But that was fairly basic at that level. From then, low cross, high cross, cutback, and goal. I have seen this goal a dozen times repeated against Bayern, Atletico, Juventus, you name it.
It was all very automatic and precise. They had a plan and implemented it well. Modric had very little creative license to dwell on the ball and it was very little emphasis on a typical no10 elaborate playing style, with long build-ups, intricate passing sequences etc.
Basically, it was the opposite of Messi Barca, where, indeed, Messi is the main violin.
