Madrid hunt new coach to save season
Published:Tuesday | October 30, 2018 | 12:00 AM
MADRID (AP):
The search is on for a new coach at Real Madrid. With the team reeling from a demoralising loss to Barcelona and far from the top in the Spanish league standings, Madrid are looking for someone who can turn things around and save the season.
Former player Santiago Solari, coach of Madrid B, was in charge of practice yesterday but the club was in a hurry to find a replacement.
Madrid fired Julen Lopetegui on Monday, saying it was time to "change the team's dynamic while all of its objectives for the season were still reachable."
The club said the team deserved better results with the quality of players it has. Under Lopetegui, Madrid won six matches, lost six and drew two. The team is ninth, seven points behind leader Barcelona after 10 matches.
"Ultimately, the way a dressing room is managed is sometimes more important than a coach's technical knowledge," Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos said after the Barcelona loss at Camp Nou.
It wasn't exactly clear what type of coach Madrid was looking for, whether it was a hardliner like Antonio Conte or a more compromising figure like Roberto Martinez. The team's recent success came with the calm-mannered Zinedine Zidane. Then again, he had Cristiano Ronaldo. Both departed in the offseason.
Madrid can go with the home solution again. Solari has been following the same path as Zidane, his former teammate and also a former coach of Madrid's B squad.
"Nobody can be compared to Zidane," Solari said yesterday. "We can leave him and his greatness alone. He was one of the greatest we have ever had at Madrid."
Solari will be in charge today when Madrid faces third-division club Melilla in the Copa del Rey. The team then plays on Saturday at home against Valladolid in the Spanish league.
"I see the players motivated to get back to winning," Solari said. "This is a team of champions, of warriors. It's a complicated moment but that's when you see their character. We'll go day by day, little by little, and then we'll see what happens."