Real Madrid: Debunking the 5 biggest myths about Zinedine Zidane as a manager
3. Zidane can’t develop youngsters
This is an argument that has been heard from the Spanish media as well, and this point has always been used whenever Real Madrid lost a match in Zidane’s second stint. Zidane had a lot of youngsters in his team, but he chose to believe in the experienced ones, which didn’t go down well with some sections of the media and the fanbase, with Real Madrid investing more in youngsters and with their development becoming a priority.
To some extent, this is true because Zidane has never been someone who will field eleven inexperienced players in a must-win game. He had a tendency of playing it safe and chose to believe in his most trusted players for many games. But to say Zidane doesn’t believe in youngsters and can’t develop young players is nothing but an exaggeration and that myth can be easily debunked by some of the examples.
In the 2015/16 season, Zidane incorporated a 23-year-old Casemiro into the starting XI, who formed an excellent trio with Toni Kroos and Luka Modric. Casemiro had just returned from a loan stint at Porto and was still a rough diamond, but Zidane had shown faith in the Brazilian and was key behind his development.
People often wrongly blame Zidane for Achraf Hakimi’s sale to Inter Milan in 2020, but one must remember that it was Zidane who promoted Hakimi from Castilla to the first team in the preseason of 2017. It was Zidane who developed a young and inexperienced Lucas Vazquez in 2015/16.
During the 2018/19 season, there was a lot of debate about whom Zidane should trust in Marcos Llorente and Dani Ceballos. But the Frenchman surprised everyone (like he does with his starting XI’s) by keeping faith in a relatively unknown Federico Valverde. Today everyone knows who Fede Valverde is, but the manager who trusted him and gave him enough chances alongside Luka Modric isn’t given the credit he deserves. One should also not forget that Zidane handed Antonio Blanco, Marvin Park and Miguel Gutierrez their first-team debuts, with the latter gaining a lot of prominence under Zidane and even under Ancelotti.
And those who say that Zidane doesn’t have an eye for talent should remember that it was Zidane who had suggested Jose Mourinho and Florentino Perez to sign an 18-year-old Raphael Varane in the summer of 2011.