Zidane: “Why would I quit? I’m doing what I like to do”

Zinedine Zidane was back in front of the press on Monday, speaking to the media ahead of Tuesday night’s game against Getafe. One of the main talking points of the press conference was the fact that Real Madrid are missing so many players right now. Zidane confirmed that Isco is ready to return, while Éder Militão, Álvaro Odriozola, Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vázquez haven’t recovered in time for Tuesday’s game.

On the plague of injuries, the coach said: “We have many players out, but there can be no excuses. We hope we can have players back as soon as possible, but for now we have to focus on trying to have a good game. We’ve spoken about it before. It’s true, the schedule is crazy and even more so when you have players who are out. It is what it is and we have to play again tomorrow. We just need to try to be prepared. We need to adapt to this different football of today.”

Sergio Ramos is one of the missing players and the coach was asked about how the decision for the captain to go for surgery was taken: “He always wants to play, but we have competent people here at the club to take such a difficult decision. The important thing is that the operation went well.”

On the midweek opponents and the fact that Getafe commit so many fouls, Zidane said: “They’re a team who compete really well. There are many difficult matches in this league. There is a really high level in Spain and all the teams play well. We’ll have to fight.”

Another big talking point from the press conference was Zidane’s future. He was asked about this several times and, on the first occasion, he replied: “That’s a question that’s quite… Well, you’re here for that. That’s ok. I focus on the day-to-day stuff. That’s what interests me. I don’t know what’ll happen. I’m not thinking beyond tomorrow’s game.” Pressed on this, he went on to add: “Why would I quit? I’m doing what I like to do. There are difficult moments of course, but that’s life. We’re going to fight because that’s what we have to do. Real Madrid is a huge club. There will always be changes here.” Pressed further and asked if he’ll complete his contract that runs until 2022, he said: “We’ll see… It’s the day-to-day work that worries me.”

Overall, though, Zidane was in a much more jovial mood than he was on Friday. He even joked while answering a question about Karim Benzema taking freekicks and the fact that the No.9 hasn’t been able to take many during his Real Madrid career. On that, Zidane said:. “That can happen. I could take freekicks well too and I only got to take one out of every 10! But, he has the quality to take them, just like Luka Modrić as well as others. They talk about it before and then decide. It’s also something about the moment. Whoever feels good in that moment can decide to take it.”