Maybe he was right to walk, but it wasn't so wise to come back, was it?
Since you say that the issues he first saw persist, why did he do it?
Since also he is not capable of developing and building a team with a tactical identity from scratch, why did he do it?
Maybe not. And surprised most madridistas. Probably only came back because he wanted to, elsewise Solari would have stayed. Opinions about Mourinho coming back in March 2019 after horrendous United tenure are worthless.
If anything he got heaps of respect for returning. Pity he didn't improve. That's the attitude most sensible fans will have.
He did it probably because he thought he will take a stab at it with the squad once it became clear to the board that squad is well past it and changes are necessary to even stay at R16 level after Ajax exposed the flaws.
He most likely came in with a guarantee of some changes. We already know he didn't get everything he wanted in the summer 2019. Was clear because for example Bale didn't leave despite getting frozen out for ages in summer and China deal got blocked for no explained reason.
Then he had to decide whether he lets club profit on sale of Hakimi in middle of Covid when nobody wanted any other of our players, while knowing Carvajal is the better player so didn't even make sense to keep to rotate at uneven standing + no buyer for Odriozola - right decision all in all, should have held out for more cash maybe.
Then he OK'd Reguilon leaving because he and the board didn't know what to do with Marcelo - a mistake.
Vinicius and Rodrygo got plenty of time for their age and still do. Their rotation would be no different under any other manager who would try to take advantage of Hazard when healthy as much as possible.
Played Kovacic a plenty. And the man plays almost exactly the same share of minutes at Chelsea, barely a consistent starter for Lampard. Garbage example.
Odegaard plays enough when fit so far. More of an issue for making him compatible with the other midfielders which hasn't been worked out yet - seemingly would work best with Case-Fede and proper wingers on each side but that leaves Kroos out the side. And we never got a chance to play that 4-2-3-1 consistently.
He did get Jović but failed to coach and nurture him.
All in all - anyone who's half smart about it will see his motivations - Zidane wanted to help Madrid, felt he could and failed on several but not all fronts. Mendy and Fede improved under him. Courtois became a top3 keeper in the world. Vini didn't make any progress but didn't get worse. Rodrygo kind of the same and improving physically. Militao the same and he has the toughest of spots to break through. Asensio is having a shit season but far from finished, though he probably needs a different coach as clearly not learning under Zidane. Same with Jović for whom Zidane made it no easier at all.
Established vets, other than Marcelo, are almost all as good and key to successful team defense. Even Benzema seems better off, but there's no credit to attribute to the player or the coach when you actively choose to lean your offense on a player as average (barely breaks the same numbers as fat and old Suarez).
He's basically returned on the same motivations as Koeman took the seat, despite being better off employed elsewhere - man loves the club.
If you were to rate the 2nd tenure out of 10, it's a solid 6 at least considering squad circumstances + Covid, maybe a 7 considering how good defense was collectively. But not more as many of the same issues persist and he didn't do anything extra to eliminate them.
That's a big difference. But hey, if you don't see it, and you let Poch opportunity slip, that's great man.
They do see it, they're not that daft especially since there's no alternatives on the market.
Hence the chatter.
