Real Madrid: The critics can talk, but Zinedine Zidane will keep winning

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane will never win over every critic of his in the fan base, but it doesn’t matter. He’ll keep winning trophies anyway.

It feels like a very long time ago that many on Twitter were asking for Zinedine Zidane to get sacked while people suggested that he was out of his depth by returning and didn’t realize the amount of work that needed to be done. Fast forward just a couple months, and Real Madrid find themselves at the top of La Liga, the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey and in the Knockout Round of the UEFA Champions League. Things are good.

After a disastrous season, Real Madrid were expected to make major changes to the squad, but with Zidane at the helm, he instead focused on rebuilding the team that made him break numerous records in the past while making some necessary changes to the squad that could help improve them. As time went on, it’s clear to see that his ideas were the correct ones.

Putting his trust into the core of the team really came back with positive responses from every single player. I don’t mean to single any specific person out but even Marcelo, who hasn’t been having a good season this year, has been doing better than he did last season.

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Toni Kroos has been sensational while Carlos Casemiro has statistically been having his best season at the club so far. Luka Modric found his element once again and has become a danger in our midfield while Karim Benzema (the only person who stepped up last season) has continued with his lethal goal scoring form.

Even the decision to let Marcos Llorente leave turned out to be a very good and calculated one by the French manager.

However, in the current world of football, no one is ever praised by everyone and this is where Zidane has shone the most.

Instead of letting the words of the fans or media affect his decisions with the team, Zidane has continued to come out with his calm approach in the press conferences without giving much away while continuing to do his magic behind closed doors.

Of course, his decisions do not always work (such as the first half of the Atletico Madrid match earlier this week) but then again, managers are human too and making tactical mistakes is just part of the job. Zidane, who is known for not liking to make many substitutions early in the match, realized that and made two changes in the second half to completely alter the course of the game.

Is this me saying that the manager should not be criticized? Of course not. However, the reasons for criticism are sometimes astonishing. Saying things like he does not have tactical knowledge or that he isn’t the right person to drive this team forward simply have no basis behind them anymore. Even if you decided to judge him based on his current time with the team and forgetting everything in the past (which is fair), you can still see that he has a plan and he’s working towards it quite well.

These are just some of the tweets throughout the past couple weeks where we see that even in the middle of an unbeaten run and the best defensive record in the club’s history, people will still find reasons to want the manager out, which is different than criticizing his choices or tactical formations.

Zidane may not be the best manager in the world, but he has at least proven to be possibly the best when it comes to the demands at Real Madrid. No ego is bigger than his and no matter what happens, his word is always the last. We have seen him bench Luka Modric consistently until the Croatian was able to prove himself again while that’s exactly what we are seeing right now with Marcelo.

Players will get the opportunities if they prove that it’s deserved and a prime example at this moment is Ferland Mendy. Earlier in the season, it was James Rodriguez before his injury as well as Federico Valverde. Under Zidane, the chances for each player will come if they prove that they’re good enough to deserve them and he has proven that time and time again.

There is still a lot of room for improvement but as time goes on, we see that room getting smaller as the team work on fixing the issues that they are very aware of. Defensively, things were not solid and that has been fixed and continues to be perfected.

The team weren’t scoring much and even though that could be seen as a problem until now, it’s definitely much less of a worry. Also, the lack of depth in midfield was a massive issue but it looks like the manager has it all figured out even though I personally worry about the amount of minutes Carlos Casemiro has been playing.

When all is said and done, it’s very difficult to look at the big picture and say that Zidane has not proven he deserves to be here so far. It’s still February and a lot can change but instead of predicting the future, focus on the facts. Zidane has made this team dream again, he has allowed the fans to look forward to success again, and he has made Real Madrid a team to fear in Spain and in Europe as a whole. All this and he has still not fixed everything that was wrong.

The current Real Madrid squad are almost the same players that showed no hunger or determination last season and this year seems to be completely different.

With all my criticisms and ideas, I still have to sit back and say thank you to Zidane for allowing us to dream again as I hope that we celebrate more success at the end of the season.