Zidane plans to build a team capable of winning LaLiga
Zidane is eager for Real Madrid to return to winning LaLiga. He said so yesterday, when Madrid fans had feared that Barça would be crowned champions. LaLiga isn’t the Champions League, but it represents values that no one can simply ignore. Winning it requires consistency, being fully alert at all time, being solid in all areas – all of the time, and playing well home and away. That’s the secret formula for a successful football team. Within his squad, Zidane has decent players, but only a few of them have the consistency to their game that he’s looking for. Zidane isn’t just anyone. He doesn’t want to be any old coach going through the motions – he wants to make his mark.
Rebuilding Real Madrid
And that’s why he wants to construct a new Real Madrid – not one based on the side which won three Champions Leagues, but one built on new ideas. He left the job unexpectedly little under a year ago, to put some distance between himself and the team as it was in that moment. Some players figure in his plans and now we have a clearer idea about the ones who don’t. He’s always careful with his words but we can deduct from what he says that Gareth Bale doesn’t fit into his vision of the team and that it would be a wise move for Madrid to cash in by selling him; Paul Pogba though, is a player he likes a lot. Anyway, Zidane is focused on rebuilding a team which he abandoned a year ago, resigned to the fact that without the 50-goals-per-season contribution from Cristiano, there was little left for him to work with.
Consistency over a full season
Perhaps for Real Madrid, whose most recent Champions League successes have boosted the team’s value, might actually benefit from not letting fate dictate their destiny. Obviously, their achievements in Europe have been magnificent and have put them in the top bracket of the best teams in the world. But Barça's stranglehold on LaLiga in fact poses a danger to Madrid’s future chances of dominating in Europe – one which originally started in the 1950s and has been revived in recent years. Europe, the Champions League… sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but Zidane, with his typical realistic outlook, has taken on the task of challenging for LaLiga. And that shows his intentions are true.