Zidane wants LaLiga title and Real Madrid legacy

Zinedine Zidane wants to walk away a winner – one more LaLiga title would make him the first Real Madrid coach to win back-to-back leagues since 1989, a badge of honour he craves

• Zinedine Zidane is desperate to walk away from Real Madrid as a winner
• Winning LaLiga would make him first Real boss to win back-to-back since 1989
• Real need to win and rivals Atletico to win and draw in their final two matches
• Zidane’s big guns like Karim Benzema and Luka Modric have stood up for him

There was another little victory for Zinedine Zidane on Thursday night at Granada’s Los Carmenes stadium – he had ditched Marcelo after a training ground difference of opinion and pitched in 19-year-old Miguel Gutierrez in his place. 

The youngster, making his full debut, set up the first for Luka Modric with a brilliant assist and never put a foot wrong as Madrid won 4-1.

Little victories are all well and good however, what Zidane wants most from the next 10 days is the big victory – one more league title so he can walk away a winner at the end of the season.

Zinedine Zidane wants to walk away from Real Madrid one last time as a LaLiga title winner

Real beat Granada 4-1 on Thursday to stay in the LaLiga hunt, but odds favour Atletico Madrid

It will not be easy. Two wins for Madrid and a win and a draw for Atletico in their last two games would make Zidane’s team champions courtesy of a better head-to-head goal difference. But the chances of Diego Simeone’s side dropping points against Osasuna on Sunday or Valladolid a week later are slim.

Osasuna have nothing to play for and Valladolid are third from bottom with only six wins all season. It’s true they need the points – and this will be billed as the club’s owner Ronaldo Nazario out to do his former team a favour – but they have not won since March 6 and are million miles off Diego Simeone’s side on current form.

Even if Atletico slip-up Madrid’s games are not easy either. Athletic Bilbao on Thursday is always a tough trip even when they have nothing to play for. And although Villarreal come to the Alfredo di Stefano on the last day just three days before they face Manchester United in the Europa League final, they could be in need of points to secure sixth place in the league.

Karim Benzema has repaid Zidane’s consistent faith in him, scoring 22 goals so far this season

Zidane saved his biggest smile of last night’s game for the moment Karim Benzema got his 22nd goal of the season. Nobody has backed the striker, permanently jilted by current French coach Didier Deschamps, more than Zidane and Benzema has never stopped paying back his club manager for that faith.

Zidane has had other dressing room heavyweights stand up for him this season with Luka Modric playing a huge part in the club’s marathon 50 games campaign. Toni Kroos and Casemiro have done likewise. Casemiro came through Thursday’s game without a yellow card so can play against Athletic. Kroos revealed Friday he has been in direct contact with a person who has tested positive for coronavirus and so is ruled out.

It’s Zidane’s loyalty to his senior players that has made his falling out with Marcelo all the more striking. But the Brazilian’s frustrations at a lack of minutes this season, seem to be at the heart of his discontent. He was always going to have a bit-part role once Ferland Mendy settled and has done little or nothing in his few opportunities to put the Madrid public on his side. He is unlikely to be at the club into next season.

Luka Modric (left) and Toni Kroos (right) are two other heavyweights who have stood up

Where even Zidane’s ardent supporters have found fault with him, is in his failure to provoke any real improvement in his younger players. Striker Rodrygo Goes has failed to really take off and Vinicius Junior remains as fallible in front of goal as last season. The night his double did for Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-finals was the outlier in an otherwise frustrating season.

Before Martin Odegaard was loaned to Arsenal he was being under-used by Zidane and Luka Jovic was proving an expensive failure, largely ignored by his manager too.

Zidane’s argument back at the critics, as Madrid try to build with these young players (Vinicius, Rodrygo and Jovic cost a combined €150million) is that with even younger players who have emerged from the club’s youth team this season, he has achieved far more.

Zidane is desperate to be the first Real coach to win back-to-back league titles since 1989

He has given debuts to centre-back Victor Chust, midfielders Antonio Blanco and Sergio Arribas, as well as winger Marvin Park and Gutierrez last night, and all look like they could play a big part in next season’s campaign.

The odds are stacked against Zidane being around at Madrid to see them do so. He hates going out on a failure. When he quit in 2018 it was after winning the Champions League and the World Club Cup but finishing third in LaLiga a stunning 17 points behind Barcelona.

The domestic failings hurt him. He puts huge stock on winning LaLiga even if it’s a competition the club’s president could take or leave so long as the more lucrative European prizes are won.

Madrid have not retained the title since 2008 when Bernd Schuster won it the season after Fabio Capello. No coach has done back-to-back leagues for the club since Leo Beenhakker in 1989. Zidane believes it would be an achievement to match any of the more glamorous Champions League feats. He wants that badge of honour before he walks away. 

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