Real Madrid President Florentino Perez has given his coach, Rafa Benitez a public vote of confidence despite last Saturday’s 4-0 defeat to their eternal rivals Barcelona.
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Several names have been touted in the media as possible replacements for Benitez, but one of them, former France and Madrid star Zinedine Zidane, has said he is still not ready to become the club’s 14th manager in 12 years.
Perez will be making his first public comments since Saturday’s game at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, when fans loudly jeered the president and Benitez during and after the match.
However, the president did stress that this support was not necessarily timeless, after previous coaches Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti were eventually dismissed having similarly received public backing.
Asked about the players’ support of the coach, Perez said: “I don’t know of any player who has said they would leave if Rafa stays”.
Perez added he could “only talk about this moment”. “We chose Rafa with confidence he could turn it around”.
Real Madrid fans vividly showed their dissatisfaction, frantically waving white “goodbye” handkerchiefs and loudly jeering.
“Even when Perez resigned, things weren’t as bad as this between him and the fans”.
Perez was clearer when claiming repeatedly that there was a long-term issue in the Madrid side which began last January, when Ancelotti was on the bench and around the time of Ronaldo’s infamous 30th birthday party. “We wanted to attack, press and win possession high up the pitch but things didn’t go to plan”.
“Rafa has full powers, nobody suggests him anything”, he said.
Barcelona was in control during most of the game and never gave Madrid many chances to score.
“I am largely to blame for this situation, I do accept that”. “There is a long way to go, we must get back to playing as well as we were when we were unbeaten”.
Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos and left-back Marcelo are both set for spells on the sidelines, starting with Wednesday’s Champions League game at Shakhtar Donetsk. We are looking at all the players, not only Ronaldo, but these players are mostly not to get.
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Van Gaal said on Saturday: ‘He [Ronaldo] plays on the wings and he is fast and scores goals.
