Potential outcome of Zidane’s rotation policy at Madrid

Even though Real Madrid have made an unstable start to the new campaign, Zinidine Zidane’s managerial decisions have still been worthy of praise.

The French tactician is rotating his players in the early stages so that towards the second half of the season (the business/crucial end), everyone will be in form and capable of putting practice into play, regardless of whether they are coming off the bench or not.

Zidane’s policy worked out well last season even though that success came at the expense of a talented striker like Alvaro Morata being limited to fewer minutes on the pitch than he deserved.

Most fans of Los Blancos may not realize the purpose now, but they certainly will not be complaining when Madrid’s bench stars and second string players are all in hot form and ready to make a difference by January or February.

When one of the team’s attacking pieces falters, the bench will be ready to step up and deliver the same output, if not more to the point of contention for a starting place.

That is how the Madrid faithful should view the picture with Zidane. No one should be delighted by the early season obstacles but it is better to let things assimilate early on instead of witnessing the players find their best form when the club is out of every competition towards the very end of the campaign.

Also, the rotations reduce the risk of the insanely high amount of muscle injuries that the team suffered last season, carrying on from the Carlo Ancelotti era.

Of course, Zidane will hope his side did not use up all of their strength in the Super Cup fixtures, only to slowly lose ground in the other competitions while rival clubs regain their form.

It must also be said that around this time last season, Madrid were sustaining quite a lot of injuries until December, which resulted in the second string team being handed far more game time than usual.

Again, it is frustrating for any manager in pursuit of the title to see his team lose valuable points very early in the campaign, especially in a league where the top teams scarcely drop points.

However, Zidane’s method of managing the team’s stamina will prove to be beneficial as the season grows, unless Madrid somehow dig their hole so deep with more draws and defeats which they may never recover from.