Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane denied his team were in crisis after Sunday's shock 1-1 La Liga draw against Eibar at the Bernabeu.

Former Madrid academy product Fran Rico headed Eibar in front early on, but Gareth Bale soon equalised when he headed in Cristiano Ronaldo's fine cross.

But Zidane's team never really pushed on from there, missing the injured Luka Modric in midfield, as the Basque visitors held on relatively comfortably for their first ever point at the Bernabeu.

It is now four draws in a row for Madrid in all competitions -- the first time they have been on such a run since March 2006.

Zidane told his postmatch news conference that it was too early to "go crazy" but said Real knew they had to work on turning their form around.

"This is not a crisis," he said. "This is just October, we cannot go crazy. Something is happening for sure -- four draws in a row, especially the three in La Liga.

"When you are ahead, after the start of the season we had, it is difficult. But I will not lose my head, and nor will the players.

"We must work more, be more intense at start of games, as we were doing before but not so much lately."

Zidane said he was disappointed with how his team had begun the game, lacking the required intensity against well-organised opponents.

"This leaves a bad taste," he added. "We did not play in the first half. The opponent did play.

"The second half was much better, which is something we are saying too much lately. Games last 90 minutes, and lately we are starting games badly.

"They scored after four minutes from a cross, when we had seen they could use that to do us damage."

A win against Villarreal just 10 days ago would have put Madrid six points clear at the top of La Liga, but they now sit level on points with Atletico Madrid, while a win for Barcelona later on Sunday will send them to the summit.

"I'm responsible [for these results] as the coach of this team, and I must look for solutions," Zidane said. "We must change this.

"What we will do is work harder and look for solutions. We will analyse things again, and when they come back from the international break we must change as we cannot continue like this."

Zidane denied that, with playmaker Modric missing, his team lacked the spark to break down stubborn opponents.

"I don't believe we were missing creativity," Zidane said. "James [Rodriguez] felt something in the warm-up. But we had [Mateo] Kovacic and Isco too. It is not play we are missing, but intensity, [winning] 50-50 balls."

Zidane said Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane had both been substituted at half-time because of knee injuries, but suggested Varane would be OK to join up with France for their World Cup 2018 qualifiers next week.

"Karim felt something in his knee -- he needs to have some tests," he said. "With Varane it was just a bang, a strong bang to his rear."

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by Dermot Corrigan

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