Limited options for squad players

One of the biggest problems facing Zinedine Zidane is how to keep his squad players motivated and happy if they are not playing. The fixtures calendar and the team's need for points leave him little room for rotating.

Disqualified from the Spanish Cup following the Cheryshev debacle, four points adrift of the league leaders and through to the last sixteen of this season's Champions League, rotating the squad is going to be nigh on impossible for the new Real Madrid boss. Los Blancos need to win just about every single game from now until the end of the campaign and that leaves little room for changes in the starting XI, at least not whilst Los Blancos are still in the title race.

Faced with so many must-win games and having to knock Roma out in Europe, Zidane plans to build a solid team over the next six weeks. That will mean sticking to the best XI that both he and the Bernabéu faithful have in mind.

With the BBC 'unbenchable' and players like James and Isco unable to cement a place in the starting XI, despite being guaranteed a certain amount of first-team football, some players are going to find it hard to break into the team. That is the case of players like Cheryshev, Casemiro, Lucas Vázquez and Kovacic.