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Zinedine Zidane is reputed to be the coach who supports his players, but support is not for everyone.
Dani Ceballos, Marcos Llorente and Sergio Reguilon are at Arsenal, Atlético de Madrid and Tottenham respectively because the Real Madrid coach considered them exceeding the requirements.
When the three are called up for the Spain squad, they wonder about Zidane’s criteria and those same questions were asked at the weekend when Mariano Díaz was Real Madrid’s best player. Why has Zidane ignored him for so long?
Why did it take an injury to Karim Benzema and a positive coronavirus for Luka Jovic to leave the coach with no choice but to play a player who had several English clubs behind him in the last transfer window but who has never lost faith in his ability to make the degree in the champions of Spain?
Mariano will be needed again on Wednesday night in what is Real Madrid’s biggest game of the season so far, against Inter Milan.
There is still no Benzema or Jovic. The 27-year-old will be willing to leave one more point, but such is Zidane’s inflexibility when it comes to changing his mind about a player that it may be that Mariano will play on Wednesday night, not for his future Madridista, but to improve. your options. at the end of the season or even in January when the window opens once more.
It was offered to Mariano in the summer and both West Ham and West Brom showed interest. It was his decision to hang on despite Zidane’s reluctance to put his faith in him that made any deal a non-starter.
Mariano has always scored goals. He originally signed for Real Madrid’s C team in 2012 and when he was promoted to B team he scored 32 goals in 44 games.
When he was unable to move to the next level, more for lack of opportunities than failure to take them, he moved to French Lyon and his impressive scoring record continued with 18 goals in 37 appearances. In 2018 he rejoined Madrid from the French team for 21 million pounds, but the chances have been slim.
So far in the Champions League he has played just 78 minutes. And that’s after scoring a brilliant goal in September 2018 with Julen Lopetegui against Roma.
He scored that goal with the number seven on his back. While others had cowered to strip him of Cristiano Ronaldo’s old jersey in the first season without him, Mariano was up for the challenge.
“It’s just a number, although I respect those who have worn it,” he said after scoring that goal against Roma.
‘Mariano honors 7’ read the headline of Marca and Raúl, another famous Real Madrid number seven, came down to the locker room to congratulate him.
Despite that great start, he played less than an hour more of football in the competition and when Lopetegui was replaced by first Santiago Solari and then by the return of Zidane, he was less and less called up.
He has never let it affect his physical form or his mental state. It only took him 30 seconds to score at El Clásico when he entered towards the end of last season and just two minutes on the weekend against Villarreal.
The way he got ahead of Mario Gaspar at the weekend to score the Real Madrid goal recalled all his predatory instincts and finisher hunger, and his performance in every way was such that the Madrid team’s performance was gone. down when they took him out at the end of the second half. .
Zidane was asked why they took him out when the team desperately needed a winning goal. He said it was because Mariano had barely played and was therefore struggling to complete 90 minutes. Whose fault is it? The Madrid fans ask.
You have a feeling that even a stellar performance on Wednesday night will only increase the club’s chances of selling it in the next window so they can save for Kylian Mbappé or even Erling Haaland.
When Zidane decides on a player it is difficult for him to change his mind. It seems that he was wrong with Reguilon, Llorente and Ceballos. His excuse with those three was that there were other options he preferred.
With Mariano Díaz there is no such justification. Madrid don’t have many options as a center forward beyond Benzema. They lack variation in personnel and training.
They need a striker who scores goals like Mariano does, and he doesn’t need too many minutes to do it.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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