Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane still “has a lot of faith” in Keylor Navas but did not disclose whether the goalkeeper would start against Villarreal on Sunday.
A poll carried out by AS on Friday found that 67 percent voted for Navas to be dropped for Kiko Casilla after a series of poor performances, but Zidane made it clear he would not swayed by public opinion.
“Valencia? I saw the game two or three times, like always, because I always work like that. It’s what I like,” the Coach said at a Press conference.
“What happened at Mestalla can happen again because football is like this. Your opponents can always make things difficult for you. We’ve had little time to prepare for this game, but it is what it is.
“It’s not difficult for us to get back up, we always keep our heads up. We know we can and should improve on things because this is a long and difficult season and for other teams, Madrid are always their [biggest] opponents of the season.
“Against Madrid, there’s always a greater motivation and that has to be taken into account.
“Bale? He’s now at 100 percent. Atletico-Barca? I can’t control what’s going to happen, I’ll watch the game but I can only control what we’re going to do … We’ll just have to accept with the result in Atletico-Barca.
“Asensio? Nothing has changed with him. On the contrary, I’m delighted with him, but when everyone’s available, someone has to stay out. It’s been Marco lately, he’s true, but he’s going to get minutes.
“La Liga? I don’t think it’ll be decided this weekend, I remember last season, when we were behind by a lot of points, look how we finished.
“In football you never know what’s going to happen, and in every game there’s a possibility of picking up points. We didn’t on Wednesday, we have a lot of complicated games between now and the end of the season, home and away.
“Navas? I have a lot of faith in Keylor, which is the most important thing, I can’t control the messages that come from the outside, but he’s under control here. We can all do better, of course, including myself. I have faith in Keylor and all my players. We can’t always do things as we want.
“Celta? I’m not worried about it because the date will be decided according to our calendar.
“We’ll have to play this game either way. What matters to me is tomorrow’s game against Villarreal.”
Real Madrid squad: Navas, Casilla, Yanez; Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Nacho, Marcelo; Kroos, James, Casemiro, Kovacic, Modric, Asensio, Isco; Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale, Lucas, Morata
Absences: Danilo, Varane
Villarreal squad: N/A
Absences: Jose Angel, Sansone
Referee: Gil Manzano
Kick-off time: 19:45 GMT/20:45 CET (LIVE on Football Espana!)
