What’s the story?
Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has pleaded the fan base to keep supporting under-fire forwards, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, after they were both made the subject of jeers at the Bernabeu for their indifferent performance against Malaga.
Both the Frenchman and the Portuguese were highly under par against Malaga in their recent La Liga clash as they missed a flurry of chances to score. The fans didn’t take the matter with kind hearts as the crowd at the Bernabeu, known for their fiery temperament against their own players, made sure that their discontent was known by the duo.
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However, Zinedine Zidane, who himself had to face such atrocity from the Bernabeu crowd when he was a player, has requested the fans to have patience with the players instead of booing them.
"We must also have patience with the forwards. Karim and Cristiano have scored goals, maybe not in the last games, but I am not concerned,” quipped the Frenchman.
In case you didn’t know…
The Madridistas at the Bernabeu are quite infamous for turning their back on their own if the said player doesn’t perform according to the standards of the club. Whistles, jeers, boos - these are quite common among the Madrid fandom when it comes to inflicting them against their own players.
The heart of the matter
On Saturday, as Madrid beat Malaga 2-1, Sergio Ramos scored both the goals thanks to two headed corners with both Benzema and Cristiano not at their best having missed a lot of chances to finish the game off earlier.
"We had chances to score more, but we got two and it is a fair result. We must continue working as we have been. [It] is a good result in general,” Zidane said.
However, Zidane wasn’t pleased that the crowd in the stadium took on their very own players. As he opined that during phases of difficulty, “you need [the supporters] to be calm and support the team. I can only ask for everyone to remain calm.”
The former Juventus midfielder also understood that the fans will always demand more, but that “sometimes the players and the coaches need more affection from their fans. Our fans are very demanding.”
Finally, the French manager concluded that the growing injury list of Real Madrid worries him more than the poor form of his forwards.
What next?
With about half a season to go in the league, Madrid will need their forwards to be at their peak if they are to avoid an implosion during the crunch part of the season.
Sportskeeda’s take…
The Bernabeu crowd is a very demanding one, but often too harsh on its players. They are also biased when it comes to being critical as players like Isco are rarely ever jeered if they perform below par.
