Thursday 6 April 2017 10:09, UK
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has brushed off James Rodriguez's frustrated reaction after the forward was substituted in their 4-2 win at Leganes.
James opened the scoring for Real on Wednesday night, but the La Liga leaders were made to fight as Leganes recovered from 3-0 down to trail 3-2 at half-time.
However, Alvaro Morata completed his hat-trick shortly after the break to seal the victory which leaves Real two points above Barcelona with a game in hand.
Isco came on to replace James with 20 minutes remaining, but Zidane was unconcerned by the Colombian's angry reaction to being hauled off.
"It's to be expected that he gets angry because they all went to play a full game," Zidane told the club's website. "These things happen and what I take away with me is his performance because he played very well.
"I haven't got anything against James, quite the opposite. I bring him off a lot, but that's because he's an attacking player and he works very hard. That happens at lot to the players who play up top, like Karim [Benzema].
"It's normal for him to get angry because I brought him off, but there's nothing more to it. I try to do what's good for the team. He's important to me, to the team and to everyone."
James has been heavily linked with a move away from Madrid given a lack of game time since joining from Monaco in 2014.
However, the 25-year-old capitalised on Zidane's decision to rest Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema by scoring against Leganes in what was only his seventh league start this season.
The goal got Real rolling on a night where they successfully reclaimed top spot from Barca following the Catalans' 3-0 victory over Sevilla earlier in the evening.
Zidane was pleased with Real's performance though did admit his own anger at them letting in two quick-fire goals.
"We made a very good start, we scored two goals and in three minutes the game changed due to the way they reacted. It was because of a lack of concentration," Zidane added.
"At the time I got angry, I was furious. We let the opposition back into the game and that's football because you never know what can happen.
"In two minutes we made things difficult for ourselves, but we got the fourth goal early in the second half and we controlled the match. I'm not worried about that."
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