What’s the story?
Zinedine Zidane and his Real Madrid players held their second meeting prior to their Friday morning training session, their third over the period of two days. The players and the technical staff attended the summit but it was Marcelo, Sergio Ramos and Ronaldo who were in charge of the gathering. Reports state that Ramos did the most talking, explaining to players that they need to improve, after having to scrape a 3-3 draw against Las Palmas and in the process lost their place on the La Liga table.
Also Read: La Liga 2016-17: Real Madrid 4 - 1 Eibar: 5 Talking Points
The 30-year-old also reminded his teammates of something that they can do to make life easier for Cristiano Ronaldo. With the Portuguese scoring and providing so many goals for Los Blancos, Ramos wants the team to do extra to free up the 32-year-old striker. “We need to improve, things are not going well and we have less and less margin for error," Ramos said. "We have to value every point we can snatch in La Liga because it is a real scrap.
“We have a game in hand, a La Liga title to play for and at Real Madrid, we don't give up without a fight,” before further adding, “Less Ronaldo, who gets 60 goals, the rest must run all.”
In case you didn’t know...
Despite rallying and producing a brilliant comeback after going 3-1 down against Las Palmas, Madrid still dropped points and this allowed Barcelona to take the lead at the top of the table. Los Blancos still have a game in hand on Barcelona and remain one point behind Barcelona and four points ahead of Sevilla.
The heart of the matter
The players organised the meeting, with the three captains – Ramos, Ronaldo, and Marcelo leading the proceedings, although the 30-year-old centre-back was the player who did the majority of the talking. The first of the three meetings took place soon after the Las Palmas match, with the second coming at the Valdebebas training base.
What was covered at the second meeting is a complete mystery, with all the players present and available for that one but the main incident was that Ramos wants his teammates to pick up the slack for Ronaldo.
Also Read: Stats: Real Madrid concede more goals with Sergio Ramos in the side
With the Portuguese being the obvious star of the side, scoring and providing so many goals for Los Blancos, Ramos wants his teammates to pick up the slack with some extra running and allow the 32-year-old to do what he excels at.
There was also references to both Isco and Morata, asking them to leave their internal battles with the manager and club regarding their contracts on the sidelines for the sake of the team. However, while Zidane was informed of the meeting, the Frenchman sat back to let the players conduct the meeting without any interference.
What’s next?
The meeting seems to have had a positive effect on the Real Madrid team as Los Blancos came away with all three points in spite of not having their two star players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale. Madrid will now face Napoli in the Champions League on March 8th at Stadio San Paolo.
Sportskeeda’s Take
Sergio Ramos has previously shown that he’s leader on the pitch with his defensive contribution and important goals, and it seems like he is a captain off the pitch, too. It is also encouraging to see that Zidane trusts his captains and given them free rein to motivate the team to perform better.
