Zidane: “We need to find solutions for when we face teams who defend deep”

Zinedine Zidane addressed the media following Real Madrid’s come-from-behind victory over Elche, and he explained that Los Blancos found it difficult to break down Elche’s deep defence. The coach said: “Today, Elche proved they are a team who defend well. They had two deep lines and they worked hard. They’re good physically and it was tough for us. All teams struggle against opponents who sit deep. But, we need to find solutions for when we face teams who defend well and deep. In the end today, we found the holes we needed. When we play with rhythm, at the same time as having patience, we can do well and we had two very good pieces of play to score goals. We need to create more chances and it’s true that it’s tougher against teams defending with two deep lines. We need to find holes, but without going crazy about it.”

Zidane was asked about his decision to play a back three and whether he selected this because he plans to use this scheme against Atalanta in midweek. To that, he responded: “We’ve already played this way two or three times. To answer to your question, it was the option for today.”

It was then put to Zidane that Real Madrid have struggled when they’ve used the back three, to which he said: “Well, in the end, we won. We had a few chances before we conceded, but we couldn’t score. We changed the system and made substitutions too and the game changed. For us, it was just important to take the three points and to stay in the fight.”

Finally, he was asked about the referee and if Sergio Ramos should have been awarded a penalty against Iván Marcone. He replied: “I’m not going to get involved in that. The referee does his job and we do our work. With that piece of play, it seemed to us like there was something, but the referee thought something else.”