Real Madrid are reeling after an embarrassing 2-1 loss to Alcoyano in the Copa del Rey, making it two years in two in which Los Blancos have suffered an early exit under Zinedine Zidane‘s full guidance.
Opportunities were given to young players, such as Eder Militao and Victor Chust at center back, but the forwards were the ones who disappointed the most.
Struggling to score against Cadiz, Shakhtar Donetsk, Elche, Deportivo Alaves, and Osasuna is bad enough, but barely pushing one past a third-division side in the opening round of the Copa del Rey is a massive problem. And whereas early exits Atletico Madrid are first in La Liga, Real Madrid are also out of first in the league.
So there is reason for Zidane to fall back on the hot seat again. He survived the ax in December, as Real Madrid turned it around with a massive winning streak following the second loss to Shakhtar. But now, Real are in trouble again.
Real Madrid will reportedly wait until the summer to make a concrete decision on Zinedine Zidane
According to a report from Jose Luis Sanchez on El Chiringuito (tweet in Spanish), Real Madrid will not fire Zinedine Zidane while the 2020-2021 season is ongoing.
The Madrid Zone translates the rest of JLS’ reporting. He states that Real see it “very difficult” for anyone to turn the season around, therefore they will wait until next summer to make a decision on both the manager and on personnel changes.
In an ideal world, Real Madrid would back their manager and give him the support he needs to allow the young players to fail. They are very clearly not ready to shine yet, though, again, the likes of Mariano Diaz and Vinicius Junior were a lot less impressive than the center backs and goalkeeper. Hell, Eder Militao was the one who scored against Alcoyano!
Zidane should feel the heat, but he is not the only one to blame for the poor results. The players must produce better. How can Zidane answer for Vinicius Junior’s inexcusable errors in attack AND defense? Most importantly, though, Florentino Perez must answer for not backing his manager enough. The standards have slipped at the White House.