What if Zidane was right all along?

Time for Zidane to choose a third way?

"Real Madrid's players needed a match like that"

As criticism has rained down on Real Madrid from all sides, Zinedine Zidane has elected to defend his players for months; perhaps Sunday's 7-1 victory against Deportivo La Coruna has proven the French coach right all along.

With Barcelona so far ahead in LaLiga it's obvious that defending their domestic crown is an impossible task for the Madrid club, however the victory against the Galicians has proven just what the team is capable of when most of their big players are available.

Gareth Bale has missed much of the campaign, since Christmas he has been able to build his fitness gradually and now is capable of playing successive matches; his brace on Sunday highlighted just what he can do when healthy and confidence.

Zidane has been criticised from his approach to the transfer market, all January long he has repeated his belief that the club don't need to sign anybody in the winter window and this seemed perplexing as the club continued to drop points.

Yet Sunday showed a team that could tear their opponents apart at ease, the chances created were both fantastic and frequent in number. Crucially, they were also taken.

A theme of Los Blancos' domestic season has been missing chances. Cristiano Ronaldo's paltry pre-game return of just four LaLiga goals was a perfect illustration of the problems they have faced.

The character of the senior players at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu has been called into question this season, yet despite going a goal behind to the Galician club they showed incredible fortitude to turn the tide of the match, especially after being on such a poor run of late.

In overturning a deficit in such challenging circumstances, the players justified Zidane's declarations that no players needed to be signed; now they must find consistency.

Watching Ronaldo, Bale and Borja Mayoral link up with the midfield was a throwback to the successes the team enjoyed in the 2016/17 campaign.

There is a sense that the coach knew his team were capable of this and it was simply a case of things falling into place enough for the team to produce such a strong performance.

Zidane elected to return to a 4-3-3 formation and it paid off, it must also be said that much of the starting line-up on Sunday make up the club's strongest team.

One of the worries for Zidane moving forward will be the fact that it has been his rotational options that have often let him down, never producing the high standards that last season's backup players did.