• Press conference.Zinedine Zidane: "Gareth Bale has a record and is important for the team"

First league trip: Hazard at home and James in Vigo. Such a headline five weeks ago, when the white preseason began, would have sounded quite odd. However, summer turbulence has made the impossible real. In the first list of Zinedine Zidane this Friday afternoon highlighted the presence of the discarded Colombian and the decline of the great summer signing, KO now three weeks for a muscular problem. The course opens and injuries remain the intimate enemy of Valdebebas. Before starting the official trip, Brahim, Mendy, Jovic, Asensio or the former Chelsea player have already gone through the infirmary. The matter, of course, worries in the club, where they approved the departure of Antonio Pintus in order to improve the legs of the squad. The new physical manager, Gregory Dupont , opens under the magnifying glass.

In Balaidos this Saturday (5:00 p.m.), Zidane will have to draw an eleven without his star reinforcement, the only signing that came to the league debut with a headline. After some friendlies for oblivion, the mentioned injuries, and an unresolved exits and entrances exchange as the French technician would have wished, he now has no choice but to use the available resources. Memory man or practical trainer? In Valdebebas, they have been seeing in recent days how Marseille was embroidering with James Rodríguez his previous approaches. Today in Vigo, why not, it could even be headline.

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In the white preseason sometimes unforeseeable phenomena happen. From one Robinho went to the Golden Ball and in a previous one, Amavisca and Zamorano began to be evicted and later became the League in decisive duet to sing the alirón and return Barça de Cruyff 5-0. In 1980, Bayern put nine in Madrid, and that same Madrid finished the season in the final of the European Cup. That nobody trusts, neither with the future of soccer players with ticket taken towards China, Naples or the Wanda. The latter spoiled James the night of New Jersey, when Atlético crushed the clueless team of Zidane, more outstanding players of the Big Apple than sharpening their nails before the always dangerous picture of Simeone.

James saw that hard win from Madrid, quickly sensing that his chances of finishing red and white were diluted after such a result. It would be difficult for the club to explain to its fans the sale to a direct rival - the second, after Llorente - of a talent like the Colombian. Locked that option and with Naples without accelerating for his signing, the 10 coffee maker did what Zidane had always demanded: work hard and steady in training. He has done it in August, with the boss very attentive. That change of attitude differentiates him, in the eyes of ZZ, of the James of 2017, which was diluted in the rotations between bad faces and stingy with sweat. Soccer gives him a second chance at Madrid, and he wants to take advantage of it.

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  • Real Madrid
  • Zinedine Zidane
  • Eden Hazard
  • Luka Jovic
  • James Rodriguez
  • Ferland Mendy
  • China
  • Golden Ball

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