Real Madrid legend Raul Gonzalez has backed the club's currently under-pressure coach Rafa Benitez to last until the end of the season at least, while also saying his former Blancos teammate Zinedine Zidane is capable of stepping up to the top job at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.
Raul won three Champions League titles and six La Liga trophies while scoring 323 goals in 741 games in 16 seasons as a Madrid player, a record only recently beaten by the team's current star Cristiano Ronaldo.
He later joined Bundesliga outfit Schalke and Qatari club Al-Sadd, before helping New York Cosmos win the 2015 Soccer Bowl during a final playing season in the NASL.
In his new ambassadorial role as La Liga's Country Manager in the U.S., the 38-year-old was quizzed on beIN SPORTS about the current situation at the Bernabeu -- with Benitez under scrutiny amid reported disagreements with important squad members, recent defeats to Villarreal, Barcelona and Sevilla and a Copa del Rey exit for fielding an ineligible player.
"Real Madrid is a very big club and bad results generate controversy," Raul said. "They have a great coach, who has won many trophies and his work backs him up. You must make judgements at the end of the season."
Should Los Blancos president Florentino Perez decide to promote current B team coach Zidane, the former Galactico has the ability to coach at the top level, Raul said.
"The president will decide," he said. "I believe in this project, and if a decision has to be made, Zidane is a great coach. He has not been doing it long, but he has the capacity to coach."
Raul's own move into coaching is still a while away, with many Blancos fans hoping he could make a similar impact at Madrid to that of his ex-Spain teammate Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.
"Maybe, maybe [I will coach] in the future," Raul said. "But now I need time to prepare to learn. It is very complicated. I love to play, but to coach is very different. It is not easy to change from player to coach. I think I need time. This project now with La Liga I am going to have more experience, more knowledge for the future and I am sure that maybe five or ten years I am ready."
Benitez and his team were whistled by angry Madrid fans even as they beat nine-man Rayo Vallecano 10-2 before the winter break, and ahead of the return to action at home to Real Sociedad on Wednesday afternoon the coach has spoken of a media campaign directed against him personally.
Former Madrid midfielder Sergio Canales, returning to the Bernabeu with La Real, denied a suggestion in an AS interview that his current side could act as Benitez's "executioners."
"We do not want to be anyone's executioner," Canales said. "We have enough to think about our own things, and not those of the opponent. In the end you never know when it's a good time to go there. There are doubts, but Madrid have players able to overcome anything. We are in good form, we will play our own game. Although we know that they can score three times in one move."
The shortening of La Liga's winter break this year, with matches between Christmas Day and New Year's Day for the first time in two decades, may help La Real however, Canales reckoned.
"The Bernabeu is difficult, but this could be a good moment to go because this is a strange time with the return from holidays," he said. "I don't know if we will reach the English idea, but to play on Dec. 30 is a big change."
With new coach Eusebio Sacristan having replaced David Moyes in November, La Real were now playing a style more suited to the squad's strengths, Canales said.
"Now the team is different," he said. "It is not better or worse. Before we played more direct, and now we want possession more and to have the ball. I am playing more I am very happy. Eusebio arrived with clear ideas which fit the characteristics of the players here. We have more confidence and are happier."
