Madrid form draws no concern for Zidane

Zinedine Zidane has no worries over Real Madrid’s form despite heading into the mouthwatering Champions League Group F clash against Borussia Dortmund on the back of consecutive LaLiga draws.

Madrid’s lead at the summit of Spain’s top division is down to a solitary point after Villarreal held them 1-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu last week and Las Palmas hit back to a retrieve a 2-2 scoreline on Saturday.

Nevertheless, Zidane was in a relaxed mood as he faced a pre-match news conference ahead of Tuesday’s match at Signal Iduna Park.

Asked whether Madrid’s dropped points were a concern for him, he said: “No, absolutely not and not because we are changing competitions, either. This can happen and it may happen again.

“We know what we want to do, we know what we need to be working on to achieve things.

“The team is in good shape. Nobody likes to lose four points in two games but football is like that.

“Sometimes it’s good to give you a warning and then you continue on your way with your work.”

On whether the reasons for the recent stumble were rooted in defence or attack, he added: “It’s a bit of everything but I’m not worried specifically about anything. We can do things better.

“When you have chances to score goals I would like to obviously score more goals.

“When [Las Palmas] score two goals against us, of course you have to think about the defence. There are things that we can identify but it’s a combination of everything together.”

Zidane, who announced fit-again duo Keylor Navas and Fabio Coentrao are ready to play 90 minutes if called upon, substituted Cristiano Ronaldo with Madrid 2-1 to the good at the weekend but he insists he will continue to rotate his squad as they bid for honours at home, along with the retention of their European crown.

“They [the players] know that anything can happen. Squad rotation is an idea that I have,” he explained.

 “Everything is normal. I’m not silly and he [Ronaldo] is clever. We all want the same thing.

“When there’s a game that one player doesn’t play in… you can’t always ask players to be 100 per cent

“If you change the side around and spread the minute around the squad there is more chance of a player being 100 per cent and that is important.”