Zinedine Zidane: Luka Jovic 'Has to Adapt' at Real Madrid, but 'He'll Get There'

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has backed Luka Jovic to come good at the Santiago Bernabeu after he failed to get on the scoresheet in Los Blancos' 4-0 Copa del Rey win over Real Zaragoza on Wednesday.

Jovic has scored just once since his arrival from Eintracht Frankfurt last summer for an initial €65 million.

Per Marca's J.L. Calderon, Zidane said:

"I'd like him to score, but he'll get there if he keeps working. 

"He's young, he's just arrived, and the good thing is that he's in a team where there are a lot of big players and he has to adapt.

"This delicate moment will be good for him; when he finally scores, everything changes."

The 22-year-old was handed just his eighth start of the campaign on Wednesday, but he was taken off after 73 minutes with Real 3-0 up courtesy of goals from Raphael Varane, Lucas Vazquez and Vinicius Jr.

His replacement, Karim Benzema, rounded out the win with a goal of his own:

According to Managing Madrid's Kiyan Sobhani, Jovic and Benzema had the same number of touches in the game (16) despite the latter only coming on for the final part. That is emblematic of Jovic's time at Real Madrid, for whom he has cut an isolated figure up front and had difficulty getting involved.

His only goal for the club in 21 appearances came in a 5-0 win over Leganes in October. He has contributed assists against Sevilla and Valencia.

He's only spent a total of 748 minutes on the pitch but hasn't done much to warrant a more significant role when he has played. Equally, it's not giving him much time to contribute or get in sync with his team-mates, who could perhaps also do more to bring him into the game.

The striker has shown he can be prolific, though, having produced 27 goals and seven assists at Frankfurt last season.