Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane was delighted with his team’s 5-0 victory against Deportivo de La Coruna in his first game as Los Blancos head coach, but believes they are going to improve.
“When you win a game, the manager can only be happy, and I’m happy,” he confessed. “What I liked the most was the player’s attitude. It is not easy to win 5-0,” he said at the press conference after the match.
Zidane returned to the Santiago Bernabeu 10 years after retiring as a player, and he admitted it was special: “This is another challenge for me, and I want to enjoy it. I thank the fans for their support, but they come to see the players, and they’ve had the victory as a reward.”
“Hopefully we will continue like this. Madrid always have to win. The most important is the player’s attitude. We have to improve in many aspects, and we are going to improve,” he said.
Asked about the change in the style of play, as the team relied more on the possession-based game, Zidane admitted that was his goal: “The objective was to play the ball from the start, and move it faster from one side to another. We did it, and the most important is that we are going to get better at it.”
Despite the clear change of attitude with the previous weeks, Zidane believes not much has changed: “Nothing has changed among the players. The only thing that has changed is the manager and I am going to try to play as good as possible.”
Gareth Bale was the star of the match, but Zidane explained he hasn’t asked for anything different from the Frenchman: “The work I ask him to do is what I ask every player; defending without the ball and making the field wider when in control of possession.”
Asked about Sergio Ramos, who had to leave the field injured, Zidane explained “he has felt some pain, and he is going to get a magnetic resonance.”
