Zidane warns Real cannot lose any more points if they are to retain title

Madrid, Mar 12 (efe-epa).- Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane challenged his players to recover the winning mentality shown after lockdown last year that led to the LaLiga title last season and warned that if they want to fight for the title, they cannot “lose more points” this campaign.

“We know what we have to do, every game when we take to the field our idea is always to win. From time to time you can’t but we don’t have in our heads what has happened in matches against teams that are a little bit inferior and we don’t think we’re going to win easily,” Zidane insisted.

“There are games in which things don’t go your way and during the year it’s normal but we know our situation, if we want to fight for La Liga we can’t lose any more points,” he added.

For Zidane, “the table doesn’t say anything” and he believes Elche, who are just above the relegation zone after finding form since the arrival of Fran Escribá on the bench, are  stronger than their position suggests.

“They are a team that is at the bottom but they have played very good matches in this league and even more so now with their new coach,” the Frenchman said.

His team’s lack of goal does not worry Zidane, who said that they have been working all week in training to resolve the issue. “We have to try to improve the offensive phases, every player wants to improve,” he acknowledged.

The lack of goals brings us to Marco Asensio, who is not contributing much in terms of goals and assists despite having plenty of playing time. “He has confidence,” Zidane said. “He’s been involved on a day-to-day basis for a long time, his injury hasn’t prevented him from doing anything and little by little he’s been fine. We are always going to ask him for more because we know the player he is and we want more from Marco, but he is working well,” he defended.

The French coach also responded to any rumors that Raphael Varane is out of the team. “I don’t think he is thinking about anything outside, he has always said so, I saw him speaking very well of the club. He is very happy and I can only see him here.”

“The reality is that we are behind but there are twelve matchdays left and all teams can win and lose points. We can keep believing, we have to keep working for it, the players know it, we have lost many points this season but we will believe in it until the end. As long as there are possibilities of being champions we are going to believe it,” he said.

Real Madrid are eight points behind their crosstown rivals, league leaders Atletico. EFE-EPA