Zidane, between Cristiano and 'Mou'

It had been a decade, since the 2010-11 season, that Madrid had not scored so few goals in the first five days of the League. Six. It was with Mourinho, in his first campaign at Madrid. But it is not the only thing that Zidane begins to resemble. The French coach showed character when at halftime he introduced four changes at the same time (Militao, Asensio, Casemiro and Valverde for Ramos, Lucas Vázquez, Isco and Modric), as an unequivocal sign that he did not like the attitude that some of his players were having against Cádiz.

“I have told the players at halftime that if I could make all eleven changes, I would change at eleven. I only had three, but I would have removed the eleven ”, said Mourinho in January 2012, after changing to three from a block at half-time and managing to overcome Pellegrini's Málaga from 0-2 in the Cup. Zidane did not get, however, any reaction to his four changes …

Beyond the dynamics of the game, so irregular after the pandemic for the French coach's team, the lack of a goal has been revealed as the main problem. After the defeat against Cádiz, the statesmen reflected on a fact that is devastating. Madrid in the first stage of Zidane (with Cristiano in the team) did not score in 9 of their 149 games (6%). Madrid in the second stage of Zidane (without Cristiano in the team) has not scored in 13 of its 67 games (19%). There is little more to say, except that a trend is confirmed, that since the Portuguese left, Madrid have finished their Leagues with more points than goals.

Other times.

Cristiano Ronaldo, 450 goals in 438 games for Real Madrid. Insuperable. His absence had to be noted. The Portuguese, the data is saying, took the goals with him. And it weighs on Madrid. In the first season without him, the team ran out of options to win any of the three great titles (League, Cup and Champions) in March. In the second he won the strange coronavirus League, but he did so by scoring only 70 goals (in the previous one he made 63), a figure well below the white team used to with the Portuguese. The situation is only saved by the defensive maturity that Zidane has endowed with his team.

That scoring shortage (and the defensive strength by which the team comes out) has been accentuated after the last confinement. Madrid has resolved with victory 13 of the 15 league games it has played after the break due to the pandemic. Of those 13 wins, 8 have been by a goal difference: Real Sociedad (1-2), Espanyol (0-1), Getafe (1-0), Athletic (0-1), Granada (1-2), Villarreal (2-1), Betis (2-3) and Valladolid (1-0). But he goes both on the wire that sometimes, as against Cádiz, the team falls apart.