Zinedine Zidane did not prepare his Real Madrid side sufficiently well enough to allow them to overcome Alaves on Saturday, according to former Blancos striker and director of football Predrag Mijatovic.
Madrid went down to a 2-1 home loss as goals from Lucas and Joselu consigned the Bernabeu outfit to a shock reverse at their temporary home of the Alfredo Di Stefano.
The display was widely condemned as being disorganised and Mijatovic has hit out at the coach’s preparation for the game.
“He must fix the situation but this begins when you prepare for the match,” Mijatovic argued to Cadena SER. “You should know that Alaves’ three forward players are their strength.
“So if you have Lucas Vazquez, who was more advanced against Inter, when he played a good game, you can’t put him as a full-back today because you have a Militao who could play there. I don’t know what’s happened to that kid because he doesn’t play either as a centre-back or a full-back.
“And then you have Lucas Vazquez as your full-back with Marco Asensio in front of him, when you that Asensio can’t help him as much as any other player.”
The former Serbia international continued: “Preparing for this game, I don’t think they realised that the strong point of Alaves is their left wing and their two forwards, and that is where the problems began.
“Alaves surprised me a lot because they came out with a lot of desire, without fear. I think that surprised Real Madrid, too.”
Los Blancos had been expected to close the gap to Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid at the top of the table to just three points but instead they are six behind, while Diego Simeone’s men also have a game in hand.
Their next challenge is an encounter away from home against Shakhtar Donestk in the Champions League – a match they must not lose if they want to qualify for the knockout phase.
Madrid previously scored a vital 2-0 victory against Inter in the same competition at San Siro.
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