Zinedine Zidane urged Real Madrid’s demanding fans to lay off Cristiano Ronaldo.
Poor Ronaldo.
Real Madrid fans are notorious for their demanding and impatient attitude toward their team, expecting success at every turn and seeing anything less than this as a complete failure.
Not even Cristiano Ronaldo is safe from the brutal criticism of Real fans, and was whistled as his sluggish start to 2017 continued with a wasteful display in front of goal as Madrid edged past Malaga 2-1 on Saturday thanks to two goals from captain Sergio Ramos.
Ronaldo hit the post and was denied three times by the Malaga keeper, but this was not enough for the fans, despite the fact they saw their team win, and Zinedine Zidane feels that the fans should lay off their Portuguese talisman.
“Sometimes when you have difficulties you need the fans’ help and to be behind you,” said Zidane. “I am not going to criticise the fans because they pay their money.
“But with so many games and a lot of injuries, the players need to feel that love sometimes. The coach does too.”
there were also boo’s for Ronaldo’s team-mate up front, Karim Benzema when he was replaced by Alvaro Morata with eight minutes remaining.
“Have patience,” pleaded Zidane. “In the past few games they haven’t found the net, but that doesn’t worry me. What worries me are the injuries.”
Marcelo and Luka Modric both limped off, but it is the former’s thigh problem which most worries Zidane with his options at full-back now severely depleted.
“We have a lot of games and in the end my mood is aggravated by the injuries,” said Zidane. “We have another important game on Wednesday. At the end of the game we are happy because we have taken the three points, but 2-1 was tight for the chances that we had.
“Today we struggled to take our chances and when the opponents had theirs they caused problems. By being calm you can achieve a lot. Now we have to rest once more because the next game is just around the corner.”
