Zinedine Zidane insists “the word ‘crisis’ doesn’t exist” in his vocabulary ahead of Real Madrid’s trip to Eibar in La Liga on Saturday.
Madrid travel to Eibar on the back of just one win in their last three games, amidst reports Zidane’s players turned on Cristiano Ronaldo after the 3-3 draw with Las Palmas midweek, but the Coach made it clear “I’m with my players to the death”.
“Eibar? We hope to have a good match, a good 90 minutes,” he said at a Press conference.
“We know the difficulty that we’ll face on this pitch once more, but that’s how it is in all the games.
“Talk in the dressing room? We always talk. We watched a little video and talked, but what we say will remain in the dressing room.
“Ronaldo? He’s a bit sore, but it’s nothing serious.
“Marcelo’s criticism? Sometimes it comes out. Sometimes you want to do things on the pitch and it doesn’t come off.
“I know you guys care about Madrid’s dressing room, and it’s normal, but we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.
“We’re not happy and we can do better, but we’re convinced about what we’re doing.
“Negativity? Yes, there’s too much of it, but when you don’t have the right match, it always happens at this club.
“We want to be positive and we think we know what to do in order to make things better.
“I have 24 players and they’re all important, this is not going to change, so sometimes I have to make decisions, some of them are left out, others on the bench … and that won’t change while I’m here.
“Crisis? For me, the word ‘crisis’ doesn’t exist, every three days you have the possibility of doing better.
“We’re relying on ourselves, we’ll never look for excuses and we know what we can get by working and fighting in training and matches.
“This is a time when we’re not getting the results we want, but the most important thing is that we give 100 percent. We can improve and we will.
“The team reacting under pressure? Lately this has been happening, it’s true. We scored two goals at Valencia, two at Villarreal, three against Las Palmas.
“Lately it’s been like this, but the good thing is that in the last two games, we ended up winning or drawing. There are things that we can improve and we will improve. I hope we can [on Saturday].
“Benzema? I’m satisfied with everything he’s doing. No matter what, I’m with my players to the death.
“Death of Raymond Kopa? He’s the French player that showed us what road to take in Spain and at Real Madrid.”
