On the eve of his first season in charge at Real Madrid, it’s been reported that Julen Lopetegui wants reinforcements to be brought in this month.
There have been significant changes at the Bernabeu this summer, with the Spanish tactician replacing Zinedine Zidane while Cristiano Ronaldo departed for Juventus.
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In turn, although they’ve won three Champions League trophies in a row, there are now question marks over how the Spanish giants will handle the losses of key figures.
Lopetegui has been busy stamping his mark on the squad in pre-season, and they looked impressive for the most part in their latest friendly against AC Milan on Saturday, which ended in a 3-1 victory.
However, according to AS, Lopetegui has told the club that he wants a central defender and a striker to join his group in order to ensure that they are capable of challenging on multiple fronts this coming season.
It seems as though Real Madrid won’t look to spend big this summer though, as the report adds that the hierarchy are happy to strengthen but only for ‘reasonable prices’.
With that in mind, it remains to be seen if Lopetegui gets his desired targets, or if he is asked to get the best out of the current squad at his disposal.
While it is of course a major blow to lose Ronaldo given his impact and influence on the team for the last nine years, his absence does now provide an opportunity for the likes of Gareth Bale, Marco Asensio, Isco and others to really step up and take on more responsibility.
Lopetegui though would seemingly like a new face or two at the Bernabeu before the window closes for Spanish sides at the end of the month, as per the report.