90min

Zinedine Zidane Under Pressure as Real Madrid Head Into Clásico

By Jamie Spencer

Real Madrid have lost two games in a row and now face Barcelona
Real Madrid have lost two games in a row and now face Barcelona / Quality Sport Images/Getty Images
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Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane is under increasing pressure at the Bernabeu following a disappointing start to the season that has seen the team drop points in La Liga and the Champions League, including back-to-back home defeats in less than a week.

With a difficult summer dominated by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Real have not strengthened the squad since last season and are struggling to rebuild an ageing side.

Real lost their Champions League opener at home to Shakhtar Donetsk
Real lost their Champions League opener at home to Shakhtar Donetsk / Soccrates Images/Getty Images

Having stuttered by opening the season with a 0-0 draw against Real Sociedad, Real then climbed to the top of La Liga with three consecutive wins. According to AS, the shock 1-0 defeat to Cadiz at the Bernabeu was then dismissed internally as an ‘accident’, but the follow up loss to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League has served to raise fresh questions of Zidane.

Real were initially 3-0 down inside the first half in Madrid, before eventually fighting back to 3-2. Yet the scale of the embarrassment was worsened by the fact that a raft of positive COVID-19 tests ahead of the game meant Shakhtar had to leave 13 first-team players at home in Ukraine.

AS notes that while president Florentino Perez is still convinced Zidane is the right man for the job, others within in the Real hierarchy are no longer as sure in light of the last week’s results. Real face Barcelona in the season’s first Clásico on Saturday and a third straight defeat could ‘set alarm bells ringing’ and see Zidane enter ‘dangerous territory’.

Club legend Raul and former Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino are the two names that have already been most heavily linked should Real pull the trigger.

Raul has been tipped as a potential successor to Zidane
Raul has been tipped as a potential successor to Zidane / Jonathan Moscrop/Getty Images

A separate AS report explains that if Perez feels he has no choice but to appoint a new coach he would favour Raul, who is currently in charge of Real’s Castilla squad.

Perez is thought to have been personally involved in Raul’s return to the club in 2018, with the retired forward guiding the Under-19 squad to glory in the UEFA Youth League last season.

There are, however, doubts over whether Raul yet has sufficient experience to merit getting the role now, given that Zidane had already been assistant coach with the first-team and managed twice the number of Castilla games when he was initially promoted into the top job in 2016.

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