Zidane: James must learn lesson from Wolfsburg

Zinedine Zidane hopes to see James Rodriguez learn from his mistakes after he caused controversy during Real Madrid’s Champions League loss to Wolfsburg on Wednesday.

The Colombia international, who has been used sparingly by Zidane since he took charge in January, was pictured laughing while warming up on the sidelines despite his side being 2-0 down.

With James’ father having claimed publicly that the change of coach at the Santiago Bernabeu has been bad news for his son’s career, the future of the 2014 World Cup top-scorer has become increasingly uncertain.

However, while he felt the incident was a mistake, Zidane now hopes that the 24-year-old puts it behind him.

“I’d like to avoid it. You learn from these things. It’s an episode that nobody likes, but we have to put it to one side,” he said on Friday.

“It’s difficult. He knows that, he knows that things like this can be picked up in two or three seconds.

“He has to learn from these things. What happened does not have a huge influence on what happens now.”

Zidane, who has stated he will rotate some of his side for Saturday’s clash with Eibar, would not be drawn on whether James or Isco will start the game.

“We’ll see tomorrow,” he said. “We want to go out strongly and not give any chances to our opponents. We know what we have to do to make sure the game isn’t difficult.”

The Madrid boss confirmed he hopes to have both Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane fit for the return leg against Wolfsburg on Tuesday, though they, along with rested duo Keylor Navas and Luka Modric, will miss the Eibar game.

“The idea is that they work separately. Benzema will train with the team tomorrow and I hope to have both players on Tuesday,” he added.