Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos believes his former coach, Julen Lopetegui, was unfortunate during his stint at Los Blancos.
The Germany international has hailed the Spaniard's work at Madrid, before the latter was dismissed following a 5-1 defeat against Barcelona.
"The beginning of the season was hard, as we were very successful in the past seasons, but many players played at the World Cup and joined later, and Lopetegui was unlucky as well," he said in an interview for LaLiga Santander.
"He did a great job but he had no luck and, if you don't get results, it's not good for the club.
"We've all improved during the last month and now we have the opportunity to fight for titles and that's a good sign."
Ahead of this week's derbies against the Catalans, Kroos went on to discuss the rivalry between the two sides.
"I have been here four and a half years and I have played many derbies," he added.
"The atmosphere is always special and you can even notice it the days before in the preparation.
"There is a lot of emotion and it is special because it is a great battle against a great team.
"The two best teams in the world face each other and in the locker room it feels like it's a unique game for all the players because of their history.
"There have been many crazy matches between the two teams and Barcelona are a very difficult team to defend against because they have a lot of quality in all positions.
"Finally, he talked about his current coach, Santiago Solari, who replaced Lopetegui back in October.
"The good thing is that the coach knows about the things that happen on the pitch at this level," he noted.
"He knows how we feel and can help us a little more, because he has gone through the same situations in his playing career.
"[The fact] that he has been a player always helps."
Cokabklmoz
0
good
Cokabklmoz
0
Tomorrow I am expecting this type of fomation
[image]
no bale but vasquez
Zascdeyz
2
Tomorrow I am expecting this type of fomation
Allfootball999
1
Lopetegui tried hard but it wasn’t about luck he just couldn’t pull it off
Chakse
0
I'm still sad
Piwbeklnyz
3
Peaceful player..., please destroy Barcelona tomorrow
lupalmnrty
5
I do agree with Toni Kroos that Lopetegui was a great manager tactically, technically and a very good man-manager, but he was too unlucky because there were many factors that were responsible for his "poor results", ranging from: (1) late preparation, many key players arrived late after the world cup; (2) fatigue caused by the world cup; (3) Ronaldo goals dependency facto, this caused the entire team to relied on CR goals for the past seasons. These factors made most of our key players to lost form. At this moment, the attackers are believing in themselves, stepping out of that shadow. It's now most of our first team players (Modric, Ramos, Casimero, Benzema, Varane, Vazquez, Cortious and etc) are getting back in-form; as a result, the results now are lil better than doing Lopetegui's reign as coach of RM. However, in my opinion, considering these points I listed that led to our poor start to the season, Lopetegui is a better manager than Solari. Let's look at their man-management aspect, Lopetegui well managed the goalkeeping situation. He rotated these two high-profile goalkeepers (Cortious and Navas) to promote harmony within the dressing room, than Solari is doing, cause Navas is being disgraced. Look at Isco's situation, not to even mention Marcelo, he Solari has shown that he has a personal problem with Isco, that's why Isco is being humiliated at RM now-a-day. Guys I hope some of you will find logic in my analysis about these two coaches. Who's better and why, Solari and Lopetegui?
Nutackpu
1
Well say
DevSlayer7
0
Lopetegui style cost him games, but he was way better than Solari
Rashniccr7
2
The General Commander in Midfield .. Well said 😇
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He's an icon in the midfield
Stillpaakwasi
3
The General Commander in Midfield .. Well said 😇
Farao
3
'Possession without penetration' I dont like that neither did the RMA board and that is what ultimately sacked him.
Rashniccr7
1
Real Madrid were simply desperate, that's all i can say, no offense HALA MADRID LIVES