Zidane decided to keep both Ceballos and Llorente this winter

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane decided to keep both Marcos Llorente and Dani Ceballos this winter even though both midfielder received offers to leave the club on a loan deal. However, Zidane still seems to trust both players and the club ultimately decided to listen to their coach and keep them in the roster no matter whether they might need more minutes to keep improving.

Llorente and Ceballos were expected to have a relevant role this season but Real Madrid’s struggles forced Zidane to play with the starters more often than what he initially planned. Both midfielders should have been coming off the bench to give players like Casemiro, Kroos and Modric some rest but Los Blancos needed those three players to start week in and week out as they couldn’t afford to drop any more points.

Real Madrid will focus on the Champions League from now on and that means that Ceballos and Llorente could get some playing time in La Liga, where Los Blancos are 19 points behind Barcelona in the table.