Cádiz warned, Shakhtar struck and Valencia delivered the final punch. Zidane's maximum risk rotations have resulted in three defeats in 22 days. Although Barcelona, Atlético, Villarreal and Real Sociedad had won this day, that is, that Madrid was obliged to win, Zidane sent a message to Valencia and Real Madrid: without Hazard or Casemiro, he also reserved two other starters, Mendy and Kroos . In their place, two very famous, Marcelo and Isco, who did not start together since the disaster against the people of Cadiz at Di Stéfano. Triple spin with corkscrew. A quirky lineup.
Some might think that the rotations could be extended by the positive for coronavirus of two holders, Hazard and Casemiro, in the PCR tests last Friday. But there are indications that Zidane had them already planned. “There is an image from last Thursday's training session in which Zidane does a aside with Marcelo, Isco and Vinicius”, commented Antonio Romero in Sports Carousel. The funny thing is that Zidane chose Mestalla for them to rotate Kroos, who will not play the first game with Germany on cards, and Mendy, which has not been cited by Deschamps for this FIFA break. They apparently didn't need an immediate break.
The result is that Isco was inconsequential for lost and Marcelo, 23 lost balls (the most), for details of unprecedented passivity and for stinging in the trap of Maxi Gómez in the penalty that was 3-1. The Brazilian's titles seem magnets for defeats. The man from Malaga is physically at a very low point and the figures are not deceiving: he beat Zidane for lending a hand in defensive work and against Valencia he did not have legs for that either, because Isco only recovered one ball … while Modric (35 years old) stole nine. His coach prolonged the agony until the 83rd minute, when he was cast to the bench for another in a worse situation even than him to enter. Jovic.
Isco and Marcelo, in the warm-up before starting as starters at Valencia-Real Madrid.
Getty Images
Zidane did not show any reaction in Valencia either. As if he wanted to make it clear, unconsciously or not, that there is no more wax than the one that burns and that he has no more template. He did not move the bench until he was losing 4-1. One minute after that target from Soler's eleven meters, who put the game definitively in Chinese, the white coach moved pieces adding Odegaard (who had been out for a month and a half) and Rodrygo to the board.
Jovic entered the Mestalla with 4-1 and in the 82nd minute.
DAVID GONZALEZ
“It was my fault”
Zidane, after 4-1 at Mestalla
The situation is recurring. The symptoms had been visible to everyone throughout the month and began with Cádiz …
Cádiz was the alert
A recently promoted to First made the champion kneel with a 0-1 that was even short. Álvaro Cervera had it clear when he saw that Marcelo was the starter and he threw Salvi over and over again, who found a bargain. Again a defensive inattention of his was paid dearly by Madrid. The yellow goal was born in an excessively friendly coverage of the veteran white back. Not only the Brazilian and Isco, also a starter, raised more than one eyebrow for his inclusion in the eleven. Lucas Vázquez, now a solvent right-back, was also there, that day practically inoperative right-handed winger. Zizou saw the Galician, Isco and Modric so badly that he took them off at halftime to put, among others, an increasingly indispensable Casemiro. “When I make changes it is not to blame two or three … Everything went wrong”, was Zidane's answer to the question about whether he had been wrong.
Militao made waters against Shakhtar and Zidane preferred Lucas as a right-back before trusting him.
REUTERS
The 'Shakhtar B' showed more deficiencies
The eleven more kamikaze de Zidane, perhaps influenced by the news that came from Ukraine of a Shakhtar devastated by Covid-19, with a youth goalkeeper and the idea of coming to Madrid to do tourism. The result was a starting eleven with Marcelo, despite Cádiz, of three, and Mendy displaced to the opposite side in which he meets but is less him. Militao Ramos entered for a headdress and was overwhelmed again and again by his compatriot Dentinho and upstairs Rodrygo, at that time with the doubts that would be cleared later with his goal at Inter, was the great news … if we except Jovic. What seemed like a night for the Serbian to get hooked on the white train, based on goals, was another visible fiasco. He had a very clear occasion in which he finished, incomprehensible in a ram, with his shoulder. In the 59th minute and with Madrid having a hard time against the very diminished Ukrainian team, Zidane got tired and took Benzema off the bench …
Jovic finished spending the minimum credit that he had that night (in Mönchengladbach it was seen that he was sentenced) against the Ukrainians but football is as it is. Around the national team break could even start against this imposing Villarreal because Benzema is touched of an adductor.
Zidane intoned one more time (it is becoming habitual) the mea culpa without leaving Mestalla. “The fault is mine”, admitted the French coach. One more wrinkle to his face. And now they are not to smile.