Zidane: “After 37 matches, why waste time talking about next year right now?”

Real Madrid face Villarreal on Saturday in the final match of the 2020/21 LaLiga Santander season and Los Blancos still have a chance to win the title. However, the main line of questioning at Zinedine Zidane’s pre-match press conference was over his future. The Frenchman, though, didn’t want to speak about next year, saying: “We have a game tomorrow, that’s the important thing. Then we’ll see. There will be time to talk about the future. Now is not the moment. After 37 matches, do you think we should waste time about next year right now? One person isn’t important because it’s about the whole team.”

There was one particularly eyebrow-raising moment when Zidane was asked if he thinks Real Madrid might do better with a different coach. “Certainly,” was his one-word reply.

Discussing the actual match against Villarreal, he said: “We know we are facing a good Villarreal side who do things very well. This season has been tough, but we are ready to give our all in this game.”

Providing some injury updates, Zidane revealed that Eden Hazard is unavailable because of a minor issue that the club don’t want to take any risks over. Also, Sergio Ramos will be back in the squad, although the coach wouldn’t confirm if he’ll start.