Zinedine Zidane Prepared To Rotate His Squad At Real Madrid Right From The First Game Of The Pre-Season
Jul 15, 2017 at 10:23 AM
Spanish giants Real Madrid conquered Europe for the second season running when they beat Juventus to the Champions League title last season.
Los Blancos also managed to win the league title for the first time in more than three years and Zinedine Zidane deserves a lot of credit for the way he has organised his team and got the best out of them, right until the final game of the season.
The French manager has a quality squad up his sleeve but it is not easy to achieve what he did at the Bernabeu in such a short time and it will be interesting to see if he can help the side, repeat or even improve on their performances from the previous season.
Image Credit: Getty Images
Zidane was smart in the way he used the right players for the right games, resting and rotating his entire squad and it is understood that he is planning to do the same in the upcoming campaign as well.
Rotation from Game 1
According to a Spanish news outfit Marca, Zidane is well aware of the challenges of the upcoming camping and has decided to start his new season by rotating his squad right from the first game.
Speaking to the media recently, “[There will be] rotations from the first match,” said the coach.
The Spanish outfit have a shot at winning six different titles next season as the Super Copa Espana and Super Cup adding to the Copa del Rey, the Champions League and the League title in Spain.
This will mean that Real could play up to 65 games in all competitions if they reach the finals of every competition next season.
So it is important for Zidane to make sure that his squad is fit and fresh for each and every game next season like he did in the previous season.
Similar to Previous Campaign
Zidane used a similar strategy last season when he used the likes of Alvaro Morata and James Rodriguez, two of the most important players in the squad, alongside Lucas Vasquez and Marco Asensio in attack, keeping the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo fit, fresh and at the top his game for the last few games of the previous campaign.
Theo Hernandez, Marcos Llorente, Jesus Vallejo and Dani Ceballos are all joining the first team next season and though the likes of Morata may yet quit, it will not be easy for Zidane to make sure that everyone gets equal opportunity to prove themselves next season.