The Frenchman faces his toughest test yet with the trip to Camp Nou on Saturday, but with La Liga out of reach, is he out of his depth in the Real Madrid dugout?
The jury is still out. Zinedine Zidane has a decent record since taking over at Real Madrid in January, but the Frenchman faces his toughest test at Barcelona on Saturday and three months in, nobody seems sure he will be a success at the Santiago Bernabeu.
That is normal. Madrid is one of the most difficult jobs in football, particularly with Florentino Perez as president. Previous coach Rafa Benitez lasted only 25 games, while Carlo Ancelotti was seen as a long-term option yet departed after just two seasons in charge. The brief is clear: find success fast or you will be packing your bags very soon.
With Zidane it should be different. The 43-year-old is a club legend from his time as a player and has little experience as a coach after cutting his teeth with Madrid’s youth team, Castilla. After constant changes in recent seasons, Perez now needs to stick to a project, a pertinent plan for growth and success. But this is Real Madrid and Florentino is a leopard who won’t change his spots.
So Zizou must deliver. Up until now, he has done well: in 14 games, Madrid have won 11, drawn two and lost only once. Among those, however, there have been few real tough tests. And when one came, in the derby at home to Atletico, it was lost. Not good. Before Zidane’s arrival, the Copa del Rey was already gone. Now La Liga is virtually impossible too and the World Cup winning midfielder will pin his hopes on the Champions League.
Before that, though, comes the Clasico. And even though the Primera Division is seemingly out of reach, Zidane cannot afford a poor performance from his side in the famous fixture. Benitez, as a point of recent reference, had been doing well until his team were blown away at home by Barca in a 4-0 loss. After that, it was a matter of when and not if he would leave. And six weeks later, he was gone.
It is still too early to tell whether Zidane has been a step up from the Spanish coach and Villarreal boss Marcelino Garcia Toral said recently: "He arrived in a difficult situation. But I don’t think the team has improved much since Benitez left."
Never a big talker in his playing days, many were indeed surprised to see the Frenchman end up on the Bernabeu bench.
"When I was in the dressing room I didn’t think he would be a coach," former team-mate Steve McManaman said. “He was very quiet and he only spoke French when he arrived. You wouldn’t think he would be a Madrid manager." And his former Juventus boss Marcello Lippi said: "I never thought Zidane would become a coach. I have trained players like Didier Deschamps who I thought could well become a coach. But Zidane was not one of them."
Now he is though and he has had to improve his dialogue. These days, the Frenchman is much more relaxed in front of the media than he was as a footballer while the players also seem happier than they were under the more dour and disciplined Benitez.
"The expectations are huge,” former Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder told Goal in an exclusive interview. "He is a world star, he knows the club and he basically never left. There is the big hope of growing a star coach like Barca did with Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique. To build an era. But so far the team is lacking consistency. There have been great victories at home and strong performances in the Champions League, but you have to admit they let Barcelona slip away in La Liga."
They have, but Zidane cannot be blamed solely for that. He was brought in with Madrid already off the pace in the Primera Division and working with another man’s team, without the benefit of a pre-season preparation period to instill his own ideas and bring in his own players, the circumstances were far from ideal for the French icon.
"He has all the qualities necessary to be a fantastic manager: charisma, personality and experience," Ancelotti said late last year. "In the future he could manage Real Madrid or any other club for that matter. Would he be the right man now? Yes, I think so."
Perez thought so too and presumably still does. Meanwhile, the players want the 43-year-old to be given time to show what he can do and Pepe sent a message to the Madrid hierarchy ahead of the club’s Champions League clash against Roma earlier this month when he said: "He knows what the players want and think. He has brought unity. Given time, he will win a lot of titles and show that he is one of the best coaches in the world."
Time is the key. But how much? Jose Mourinho was given three seasons, Ancelotti had two, Benitez only half. With Perez’s popularity on the wane and fans fed up with the constant changes, Zidane should at least, be handed this term and next to prove he has what it takes at this level.
But asked about possible new signings in the summer, the Frenchman said recently: "Transfers? I don’t even know if I will be in charge next season."
That is the nature of the job at this club and Zidane knows full well, having seen successful coaches like Vicente del Bosque and Ancelotti dismissed when they would have been highly valued at other teams.
"I think a coach always needs six to eight months to tell ‘what kind of player I want for my team’, so I think that even if this season doesn’t go well, if the Champions League doesn’t go well, they will give him another chance next year," former Spain winger Luis Garcia said recently.
And another former team-mate of Zidane’s, former Brazil forward Julio Baptista, told Goal: “Next season when he takes the team from the beginning, with pre-season and his own ideas, we will see the work that he does, whether he is effective or not."
"He is the right man for the job," former France colleague Youri Djorkaeff said. "But is he the right man for Real Madrid? I’m not so sure."
Nobody is and time will tell of course, but the players want him to stay and the late Johan Cruyff's view of Guardiola at Barca back in 2008 is perhaps also applicable here. "The important thing is the strength to make decisions and the ability to talk to the press, because they don't help and you have to manage that," the Dutchman said of the Catalan coach. "After that, it's easy for those who know football. But there aren't many who know."
Zidane is one of those. So even if he may not be a student of the game quite in the same way as Pep, he has been there and done it as a player, plus he has the charisma, the knowledge and the experience to succeed at this level. Now he needs the time as well. But for now, a good result against Barca on Saturday would be a huge help to his cause.
No comments:
Post a Comment