Lucas Vaquez has blamed Real Madrid’s defeat to Valencia on Zinedine Zidane’s use of same rotations system, which the winger feels potentially dictated their first XI last night.
Zidane’s side fell 4 – 1 to Valencia thanks in large part to a hattrick of penalties from Carlos Soler and an own goal from Raphael Verane.
The right winger, had difficulties squaring up against Jose Gaya, Valencia’s left-back, conceded a handball in the box which resulted in Valencia’s first penalty.
“I was running at speed,” Vazquez said of his handball. “The ball came out quickly and I didn’t have time to get my hand out of the way. I think it was a penalty and we just have to put up with it”.
“As a team, we came into the game on the back of several pretty good performances, in which we performed to our best and tonight’s was a tough game,” Vazquez said.
“We just weren’t at it, we’ll have to analyse it, learn from it and improve. We’ve been using the same system of rotations for the last five years with the coach, he does what’s in the team’s best interests and we try to be in the best possible shape to perform well”.
The French-tactician, who led Los Blancos to only their second La Liga title since 2011-12 last season, had come under serious pressure since the start of the campaign after a shocking 1-0 home defeat to newly-promoted Cadiz.
The club was without Eden Hazard who seemed to be finding his footing gradually, and combative midfielder, Casemiro on the night, after both players tested positive to coronavirus.
Real Madrid slips to third on the Liga standing with 16 points and two points behind current toppers, Villarreal.
