He told Radio Marca: "This is a player who last season had problems because the style of play of Fabio Capello does not allow freedom and he could not play when he felt ill at ease.

"This season he is playing very well.

"I talked with him to show the confidence the club has in him and he has responded. Schuster has him given the freedom he needed."

On Real's current style of game, which has been criticised, Mijatovic continued: "We have not stopped trying to play fun and beautiful football. We want to offer this football, but it is impossible to do so in every game.

"What is indisputable is that the statistics are better. At this stage, compared to last season, we have 15 more goals and we have 12 more points.

"The players say things have changed a lot."