Zidane was right

Zidane he doesn't usually raise his voice, but when he does, the walls shake. Internally and externally. On February 5 he rebelled in public in the previous Huesca and since then this Real Madrid has changed. He complained that his team was considered dead too soon after the 1-2 against Levante and his speech (“We are still the champion”) fell into the locker room. Just three months later, Zizou has lifted Madrid And he has it against the wind (controversial arbitration decisions) and tide (the plague of injuries and coronavirus) in the fight for the League and the Champions League. With a worse squad, no signings and having to pull from Castilla, he can even improve his final sprint of the year of his double. Zidane was right …

Just look at the calendar. This Madrid, which on days like the trip to Valladolid (0-1) in mid-February had to go with six castillistas in the squad because there were only 13 healthy first-team players. This Madrid that is surviving with gallantry, trade and packaging in significant days such as Getafe, where a 0-0 victory was known for the team because nothing could be worse. That day (April 18) he traveled to the Azulón Coliseum with full-time injuries (Ramos, Mendy and Lucas), partial injuries (Carvajal and Hazard), two confined by Covid-19 (Varane and Valverde), two sanctioned (Nacho and Casemiro) and three players on the brink of injury due to physical exhaustion, Modric, Kroos and Benzema. The first two forcibly rotated. Eleven casualties and / or changes. Even so, a more than controversial offside by Mariano interposed between Madrid and the three points.

All this has not prevented the Madrid team from chaining 19 games without losing (including the draw in the derby and the triumph in the Classic) that bring them closer to the double while their rivals puncture and allow them to be in a semifinals that smelled like chimera after those two defeats against Shakhtar in the group stage. Right now, Madrid is six appointments, four in the League and maybe two in the Champions League, for glory.

He does it with the squad, he is literally playing physical. Modric is in 50 games this season, Ramos played a stretch with a badly battered knee and Valverde started at Anfield with an ankle the thickness of a ski boot, to name a few. With reports that warn of risks of more injuries. Zidane has even rectified. Since he said after the El Clásico that his team “is at the limit” he has stopped saying it to the media and it even bothers him when they ask him about it. (“You are always with that …”, he complains). It was an internal decision. There was no need to show weakness, or excuses and the dressing room took it as here you would come to die with your boots on. This Madrid is not the one from 2016-17 where Zizou had the luxury of having a substitute Unit B in which Morata, James, Asensio and Pepe, among others, appeared. And a first unit with the napalm of Cristiano. Big words.

In 2017 he lost more than now

None of that is now, even Odegaard and Jovic left in January, but this current Madrid with a much more limited squad then loses less in the final stretch than that Madrid armed to the teeth. In that 2017, the whites lost despite the final upset the Clásico (2-3) on matchday 32 and the semifinals against Atlético (2-1) although the result of the first leg (3-0) saved them. This Zidane who raised his voice in February he has not been beaten this season by any of the top coaches in Europe. Not Koeman, not Simeone, not Conte, not Gasperini, not Klopp, not even Tuchel. Zidane, the 'aligner' and “the one with the flower”, can surpass himself and finish a year to frame in the museum of the new Santiago Bernabéu.