COMMENT
The same quiet yet majestic assurance Zinedine Zidane carried as a player has transferred over effortlessly in his new guise. That elegant, imposing figure, now decked in a suit rather than the shirt of Real Madrid, Juventus or France, smiled faintly as he considered one particularly loaded question at a press conference on Tuesday that coincided almost to the day with his first anniversary as the Merengue coach.
It was a query on the upcoming FIFA awards, and his own chances at being named Coach of the Year by the world governing body, that invited a witheringly dismissive response from Zizou. "No, of course not. I think it would be perfectly reasonable for someone else to win it," he stated, when asked if he saw himself as favourite over Leicester City hero Claudio Ranieri and Portugal's Fernando Santos.
"I've only just arrived, this is all new. I have to keep working and show an awful lot more and that would be perfectly reasonable to me."
Zidane not expecting FIFA prize
If there is one quality Zidane possesses in droves, it is reason. Most wonderfully talented playmakers, be it Diego Maradona or Paul Gascoigne, Juan Roman Riquelme or Francesco Totti, are at times erratic presences on the field; but not the Frenchman, who combined immense ability with the most logical of thought processes that ensured he invariably made the right choice when it counted.
On the bench, too, it is his pragmatism that has stood out clearest after a fantastic introduction to the highest level of football. But here his reason might just have failed him: Zidane is a perfectly logical candidate for the prize, as the driving force behind Madrid's near-flawless 2016.
The then-Castilla coach took over from Rafa Benitez with Madrid floundering in La Liga, after the Spaniard failed to get to grips with the Bernabeu behemoth neither on nor off the field. Benitez was eaten alive by the internal politics of the club, cajoled into fielding XIs that simply did not function, and the results were sadly predictable.
Perhaps by sheer force of personality, or by taking advantage of his impeccable reputation inside the club, Zidane insisted that he was not going to make the same mistakes as his predecessor. His hand did not tremble in brusquely removing putative superstars James Rodriguez and Isco from the starting line-up, and installing in their place honest performers with a clear job to fulfil such as Casemiro and, to a lesser extent, Lucas Vazquez. In his own calm yet firm manner, he has calmed the tumultuous waters at the club.
The fearsome Florentino Perez, benefactor and executioner of so many hapless big-name trainers, watches with awe from the sidelines and speaks effusively of his man on the touchline. The Real Madrid dressing room, meanwhile, that notorious snakepit, has seen its fangs pulled by a man who knows how it works better than anyone, leaving it with all the venom and machiavellian intrigue of your average Tuesday evening Rotary Club meeting.
Substance take full priority over style in Zidane's Madrid line-up, and the outcome has been the formation of a team that may not fill supporters' eyes with beautiful attacking football but which has proved to be practically invincible over the last 12 months. Balance, solidity and unlimited reserves of tenacity and fitness have been the keys to Madrid's revival, and in this the influence of the club legend is unmistakable.
In 2016 Real Madrid took the field 53 times. No less than 40 of those encounters, including three finals, ended in victory for the Blancos, while Zidane has lost just two games in his entire Madrid tenure, neither of those in the current term.
What's more, the coach has achieved such a run in far than ideal circumstances. Midfield kingpin Luka Modric, arguably the most important player in the Madrid side, has missed numerous matches through injury, as has the indispensable Gareth Bale. The Frenchman also had to deal with the sex scandal that enveloped compatriot Karim Benzema, as well as countless injuries to key players, including one Cristiano Ronaldo, over the last 12 months. It is a record unmatched by any trainer on the planet, and one that should make him an absolute shoe-in for the FIFA prize.
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But what about Ronaldo, the man who is effectively already celebrating adding the FIFA Player of the Year gong to the Ballon d'Or picked up at the end of 2016? The Portugal international remains a force to be reckoned with, having smashed 42 goals under Zidane and netting the decisive penalty to ensure Champions League glory. But he is now the final link in the chain, entrusted solely with poking the ball home in the area rather than acting as the driving force of the Merengue machine.
And when Cristiano has been missing, the machine has barely missed a beat. In the 10 games for which the four-time Ballon d'Or winner was absent, Madrid won nine, and Zidane is yet to taste defeat without his talisman. Indeed, the Merengue's 90 per cent winning record without Ronaldo is far superior to the 72.1% of matches won with the striker on the field, although it is a much smaller sample.
The coach's handling of his No. 7 has been exemplary, pandering to his ego while quietly shifting him away from the creative engine room as the years begin to take his toll. In public Zidane showers Ronaldo with affection and praise; behind closed doors, he is creating a team where the star is a welcome addition to the team rather than the be-all and end-all, as is the case with Lionel Messi at Barcelona.
As if to underline that point, Cristiano will sit out Madrid's first game of the year as Zidane officially celebrates his first anniversary. And while writers make for notoriously inept clairvoyants, it is not unreasonable to predict that a CR7-less Madrid will not be unduly weakened even against Jorge Sampaoli's dangerous Sevilla team in the Copa del Rey clash.
Zizou's honeymoon will of course not last forever. In Real Madrid you are only ever as good as your last trophy, and there is no tolerance for even the slightest hint of failure. Just ask Manuel Pellegrini, the only man in history that boasts a better winning ratio than Zidane and who was nevertheless cast aside after just 12 months for being unfortunate enough to finish second behind Pep Guardiola's Catalan juggernaut.
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On the playing side, too, he will have some big calls to make. Real Madrid were heavily dependent on their BBC forward line for goals in 2016, with the trio scoring 81 of the 150 strikes recorded while no other player managed to pass double figures. Bale, Benzema and Cristiano's pre-eminence has all but discouraged other forwards from joining, and led the likes of Isco, James and even Alvaro Morata to consider moves away; but with Ronaldo already the wrong side of 30 and Benzema set to pass that landmark in 2017, easing the pressure on the trident will be a vital but extremely complex task.
For now, however, the rookie coach has passed his maiden year with flying colours. Zidane banished memories of those dark days under Rafa Benitez in an astonishingly short time and the future for Real Madrid and for himself looks exceedingly bright indeed. Depending on the vagaries of the FIFA vote he may well miss out on the coaching prize while his Portuguese charge is honoured - but he is just as deserving if not more of recognition than the prodigious goalscorer.