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Zinedine Zidane’s line-up against Alcoyano already suggested that it could be a difficult night. There were two debutants, seven regular substitutes and only two regular starters against a Alcoyano team playing the game of their lives. It was a risk and it backfired. Sooner or later, Zidane was going to pay for the seven-game streak in a row using basically the same group of players. However, it was not expected to be against a 10-man Segunda B team.
When Real Madrid came close to being eliminated from the Champions League a few months ago, Zidane decided to stop rotating and used around 13 or 14 players continuously. He gave up his main strength as a coach, as well as his best hope in the medium term, which is to have all the players in the squad fired up and committed. Then when these backups were suddenly released, the response was an expected non-response.
It is not easy to tell if the chicken or the egg came first. It is difficult to know if the substitutes failed because the coach hardly used them or if he hardly used them because he knew they could not. There’s a mix in this pool of veteran and novice backups. Even in that group, there are young people with the possibility of reaching the club and others who show that the Real Madrid shirt is too big each time they put it on. Either for lack of character or quality, that seems to be the case of Álvaro Odriozola, Mariano, Eder Militao and Luka Jovic.
It is clear that there is a contrast between the club’s policy of recruiting young talent and developing these players and Zidane’s management of these players. It cannot be easy to achieve a generational change in a club where there is more demand than any other in world football, because you know you have to win. There is no patience, so there is no alternative. Julen Lopetegui and Santiago Solari have been victims of this despite doing a good job. Then Zidane arrived and won some more titles, but the youngsters stayed on the road with some exceptions.
Real Madrid have four really promising young talents: Fede Valverde, Martin Odegaard, Vinicius and Rodrygo. Bringing in Odegaard after three games injured at Mestalla in the 64th minute when Real Madrid trailed 4-1 was tough. He was one of the stars of LaLiga Santander last year. Fede Valverde, meanwhile, was the MVP of last year’s Spanish Super Cup and had expelled Luka Modric from the starting eleven. Then Vinicius, even with his lack of shot, was the main offensive argument of Real Madrid under Solari. At Alcoy, Vinicius made a couple of big mistakes by failing to take advantage of a one-on-one opportunity and then lost his score at Alcoyano’s corner which brought the tie. However, a week ago Lucas Vázquez also made two mistakes that cost Real Madrid the Super Cup. Then Zidane played it in the next match. I hope he does the same in the next game with Vinicius because he needs him much more than Lucas. The figure of Zidane is eroding because it becomes clear that he prioritizes veterans who are no longer up to the task, such as Isco or Marcelo, over young people who could.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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