Real Madrid Manager Zinedine Zidane Hits Back at Critics Amid Slide

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has responded to the criticism regarding his team during their poor run of results, saying he's not the worst manager in the world and he's gone through bad stretches before.

The Frenchman was voted coach of the year at the Best FIFA Football Awards last month, prompting him to tell reporters he doesn't believe he is the world's best manager.

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He also doesn't think he's the worst, as he told reporters ahead of the upcoming match against Las Palmas:

"These are things that I cannot avoid. I am not the best coach in the world, maybe, this season, I accept it.

"But neither am I the worst in the world right now. Whether it's euphoria or if things go badly, I am always in the middle. It also happened when I was playing.

"What my players and I are thinking at the moment is that we are the same people, we are not happy with the two games we lost but it does not change what we are trying to achieve."

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Real have lost their last two matches—defeats to Girona in La Liga and Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Champions League. In the domestic league, the fourth-place Los Blancos already trail Barcelona by a significant margin.

Per SuperSport, Madrid will need a historical run to catch their rivals:

Injuries and suspensions have played their part. Cristiano Ronaldo missed the start of the season after he was sent off in the Spanish Super Cup for pushing a referee. He was banned five matches for the incident. Dani Carvajal and Gareth Bale have missed time after suffering from a viral heart infection and a hip injury, respectively. Others have been sidelined as well.

Both Carvajal and Bale have returned to training, but according to Zidane, they will not feature against Las Palmas on Sunday.

Pio-Pio travel to the capital having lost their last six outings in La Liga, and they sit in the relegation zone. On paper, they shouldn't provide Real with a significant challenge, and Zidane is expected to send out a strong team ahead of the international break.