Lopetegui Challenged Forming the Squad Without Ronaldo

DBasia.news – Julen Lopetegui hasn’t experienced how does it feel to lead the world star player, Cristiano Ronaldo in Real Madrid. Not too long after he appointed as Madrid coach replacing Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo moved to Juventus.

As a result, the pressure to Lopetegui is bigger ahead of the 2018/2019 season. Not only asked to keep Madrid’s performance without Ronaldo, the former Spain national team coach was also expected to continue the success story under Zidane, won the Champions League in three consecutive times.

It might be too much if the supporters believe that Lopetegui can do that. At least, Lopetegui can form Madrid as a competitive team in defending the Champions League title and compete in La Liga.

The 51-year-old coach knows for sure his challenges. But, Lopetegui feels challenged to create the El Real squad without Ronaldo.

“When I signed, he still belonged to the club, but he quickly expressed his desire to leave and it went ahead. It’s an exciting challenge as a coach to reinvent the team without Cristiano. Building a competitive, ambitious team which aspires to win everything,” Lopetegui said reported by AS.

“I have no doubt that’s what’s going to happen,” he ensured.

Madrid squad will be filled with young players, mostly from Spain, under Lopetegui. Madrid just got three players: Andrey Lunin, Vinicius Junior, and Alvaro Odriozola, with no direct successor of Ronaldo.

However, Lopetegui is content with the current squad. He also waits for the arrival of players on holiday after the 2018 World Cup like Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, and Luka Modric.

“We’ll have some superb signings coming in shortly: Sergio Ramos, Varane, Modric, Kovacic, Marcelo, and Casemiro. We’re thrilled with the team we have here and we’re convinced we’re going to fight hard for all our goals. We’re happy and working hard to try and be a great team in every sense,” Lopetegui added.