Valdano rejects Real Madrid crisis talk: Rock bottom situation exaggerated, says Carlos Volcano

Valdano was asked about a player being overheard after their Champions League defeat at Lille saying that Real Madrid had hit "rock bottom".

The former Real coach and sporting director told Radio Marca: "Rock bottom is there to gain momentum, isn't it? At Real Madrid, there's nothing easier than hitting rock bottom, in other words, you lose one game out of 40 and you're already hitting rock bottom. It's a very common rock bottom.

"In any case, the players are getting better psychologically prepared every day to face these types of situations and the best thing is to face them collectively. We have the habit of looking for the culprit before looking for the reasons that cause frustration, so that's what Carlo (Ancelotti) will be working on, he's a master and he'll find a way around Real Madrid's problems."

Asked if there's anyone to blame, Valdano said: "No, we shouldn't blame the collective, we can get out of this. Everything together. The other day was clearly a bad game, because everyone is responsible. The ball didn't come out cleanly from the back, there was no fluidity in the middle and it didn't get up front, at least it didn't get there in good condition, so are we going to blame Endrick?

"If he doesn't receive the ball in conditions that we can measure him from a footballing point of view, then we can't give him much responsibility. To do this, we have to look for collective solutions and get out of the problem together."

On Kylian Mbappe's impact, Valdano said: "Yes, indeed, expectations are very treacherous and when a phenomenon arrives at the club, well, it seems that this phenomenon is going to solve all the problems and in reality it doesn't solve them. It simply changes the problems, because we must not forget that Mbappé arrived, but Kroos left. Well, logically Mbappé's weight is much greater, in terms of the media and also in terms of football."