Zinedine Zidane seems to have forgotten two of the most talented players at Real Madrid as Vinicius and Odegaard continue to warm the bench.
Zinedine Zidane’s tactical weakness are being exposed this season as Real Madrid continue to drop points against weaker teams in La Liga that prefer playing a low-block while defending. Real Madrid are currently placed second on the table and are just four points shy of being displaced by Barcelona who are currently placed third.
Los Blancos once again dropped points against a comparatively weaker side as they were unable to beat CA Osasuna’s low-block. Talking about the fixture against Osasuna, Zinedine Zidane could have brought on Martin Odegaard during the last 15 minutes to make use of his creative ability to unlock the defence. However, the Frenchman preferred bringing on Isco instead who was rather futile as he has been for a major part of this season.
In fact, Martin Odegaard’s last fixture where he got to play a majority of the game was against Shakhtar Donetsk back in December. Since then, Odegaard has played only a combined total of five minutes of football with the first team. On the flipside, Isco who has clearly shown his intentions of leaving the club continues to get regular minutes for reasons that remain unknown.
Along with Odegaard, Vinicius Jr faces the same issue. The Brazilian should have been brought on against Osasuna as the young Brazilian is by far one of the best impact substitutes that Zidane currently has in his squad. However, Zidane preferred bringing on Mariano Diaz instead of the talented winger.
Vinicius Jr’s last outing where he got a majority of the minutes to play was against Athletic Bilbao where the Brazilian even picked up an assist. Since the 16th of December, the 20-year-old has played only 21 minutes of football which is quite an appalling figure given how effective a winger Vinicius Jr is.
Zinedine Zidane is known for his squad rotation skills, however, there have been instances where has completely ignored a player or two. This time around it seems like Odegaard and Vinicius have joined the likes of Eder Militao, Luka Jovic, and Alvaro Odriozola.