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Zinedine Zidane was nothing short of an artist on the pitch in his day but he also knew that his talent alone was not enough to win trophies. Although the coach is looking for a spectacle from his team he has no intention of sacrificing defensive tenacity and is as focused on neutralising the opposition through hard graft and aggressiveness.
These are elements the Frenchman feels he has been missing from his team up until now. Technical quality is the least of the manager’s concerns, something his charges have by the bucketload and an area where little training is required. The mantra he is drilling into his players right now is that everyone needs to be pulling their weight to reinforce the team’s defensive efforts. He has also asked his squad to be more aggressive, particularly in defence and, even more specifically, in central defence – holding Pepe up as the example to follow. The Portuguese player, having started out at a disadvantage in the shadow of Raphaël Varane and Sergio Ramos, has shown himself to be better than anyone at staking out his territory and intimidating the opposing side.
In fact, Zidane has, on more than one occasion, been heard to complain that his players are lacking in intensity. The French coach will be hammering his vision home during the remainder of this week. This is his first ‘Clásico’ and he is going into it guns blazing.
