Former Real Madrid star slams Zidane after Alaves howler

Real Madrid fell to a shock home defeat against Alaves on Saturday, leaving their manager and his tactics under the spotlight.

Predrag Mijatovic has slammed Zinedine Zidane for not preparing Real Madrid well enough to face Alaves over the weekend.

The reigning Spanish champions suffered a fresh blow to their title defense by losing 2-1 at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium. Lucas Perez and Joselu’s goals sealed their fate, despite Casemiro pegging a late one back.

And, in his post-match conference, Zidane was lost for words on Real Madrid’s sudden dip in form. How the squad went from beating Inter Milan 2-0 at the San Siro last Wednesday to losing to Alaves three days later was beyond his comprehension.

“He must fix the situation, but this begins when you prepare for the match,” Former Los Blancos striker Mijatovic told Cadena SER.

“You should know that Alaves’ three forward players are their strength.

“So if you have Lucas Vazquez, who was more advanced against Inter, when he played a good game, you can’t put him as a full-back today because you have a [Eder] Militao who could play there. I don’t know what’s happened to that kid because he doesn’t play either as a center-back or a full-back.

“And then you have Lucas Vazquez as your full-back with Marco Asensio in front of him, when you that Asensio can’t help him as much as any other player.”

Mijatovic added: “Preparing for this game, I don’t think they realized that the strong point of Alaves is their left-wing and their two forwards, and that is where the problems began.

“Alaves surprised me a lot because they came out with a lot of desire, without fear. I think that surprised Real Madrid, too.”