Zinedine Zidane, the man who does nothing but win trophies as manager and player, is back with Real Madrid for a second stint as head coach less than a year after leaving the club. Having just arrived this week, he’s already shaking things up — and to good effect.
In Real Madrid terms, the club is in crisis, a full 12 points back of rival Barcelona in LaLiga, dumped out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 and ousted from Copa del Rey by Barça.
But there’s still a season to play out and Champions League qualification to solidify. And to do it, Zidane has recalled a number of key players ignored by Santiago Solari before he got canned on March 11.
Perhaps Zidane is using this opportunity to put these players in the shop window. Or perhaps he realizes these are the players who can lead Los Blancos back to relevancy. Or perhaps he just had a good feeling about these guys on Saturday.
Starting XI to face @RCCelta!#RMLiga | #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/pxgcMzYZLy
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) March 16, 2019
First up in Zidane’s Real revamp was Keylor Navas, the goalkeeper who helped the Merengues win three Champions League crowns. The Costa Rican was cast aside for Thibaut Courtois, brought in from Chelsea over the summer, only really receiving time in the Copa del Rey.
Zidane, either recognizing Navas is actually good despite being from a Concacaf nation or wanting to increase his value to sell him in the summer, started Navas in goal against Celta Vigo on Saturday.
It was a good decision.
About 15 minutes in the game, Navas came up with this huge save on Maxi Gomez to keep the match scoreless.
Yeah. He’s pretty good. BeIN Sports named him Man of the Match and he was called "magisterial" by Ray Hudson, really the highest praise available to a footballer.
Also returning to the lineup was Isco.
The Spanish midfielder hadn’t started a league match since Real Madrid’s 5-1 loss to Barcelona in October, but was restored to the lineup alongside Marco Asensio, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema up front.
Asensio, who himself didn’t see much playing time under Solari, combined with Benzema to set up Isco for the game’s opening goal in the 62nd minute.
The goal was Isco’s first in LaLiga since Sept. 15.
To cap it all off, Marcelo, who had been relegated to the bench for Sergio Reguilón under Solari, assisted Bale on Real Madrid’s second.
While a 2-0 home win over a team in the relegation zone isn’t exactly a big win for a club like Real Madrid, the fact is it ended a four-match losing streak at the Bernabeu.
Zidane has plenty of work still to do to turn around Los Blancos — and he’ll surely get plenty of money to spend in the summer — but a solid win was just what Real Madrid needed after a month of misery.
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