Monday 6 November 2017 08:00, UK
Zinedine Zidane has defended misfiring Cristiano Ronaldo, insisting he is helpful to Real Madrid even when not scoring.
Ronaldo has scored just once in seven La Liga games this season, but has netted 12 times for club and country overall, and set up Isco's goal in the 3-0 win over Las Palmas on Sunday night.
But Zidane says he is focusing on Ronaldo's positives, claiming the media "always focus on the negatives".
"You [the media] always think of negative things and I think positive," said the Real boss, whose side lies third in the table after 11 rounds of fixtures, eight points behind leaders Barcelona. "Cristiano has given the pass for the goal [of Isco] and I can tell you that he is very pleased with it.
"He is happy to give a goal and it was a beautiful goal. We know that he likes to score and he is happiest when scoring.
"But we believe that he will make a difference. He is not doing it now by scoring in the league, but he is in the Champions League and he also does other things.
"He is helpful to the team and in the end, he will make a difference."
Zidane also insists he did not hear any of the reported jeering from the Real fans towards his fellow Frenchman Karim Benzema.
Benzema himself has scored twice this season in 12 appearances for Real.
He told reporters: "I don't know, I didn't hear that. If you say so. At the end of the day, what we want to do is continue to work and do the right thing. We're talking of Benzema and Cristiano and it's true, I don't know how many goals they have."
