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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane insists he won't ask club for any signings before transfer deadline

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane says he has not asked the club for any signings, despite the apparent need for a new striker.

Los Blancos fired blanks in their LaLiga opener away to Real Sociedad last weekend in a 0-0 draw which highlighted the need for an alternative to Karim Benzema.

Zidane had two strikers on the bench, but chose not to send on either Luka Jovic or Borja Mayoral, while Mariano is not in the Frenchman's plans and the club have been linked with the out-of-contract Edinson Cavani.

Asked on Friday if he wanted to bring in a centre-forward before the transfer window closes next month, Zidane said: "Anything can happen until October 5.

"That's what interests you (the media), but I'm happy with my squad. I have complete trust in it.

"We will work to be in good shape physically and if we are well prepared, we can compete and achieve our objectives, which is to win."

Later, he was asked if he had requested a new striker and he said: "This is the squad I have. I won't ask for anything. I don't want anything."

The Frenchman went on to repeat that anything could happen until October 5, before hinting that Benzema and Jovic could play together at some stage.

"Yes, they can play together," he said. "But as always, we are going to have a lot of matches. We could play a different way.

"Every game is a different opponent, all of them are different and you can choose. But I have never thought that Jovic and Karim couldn't play together. It could happen."

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