Benítez: "I'm happy with the balance of the team"

04/08/2015realmadrid.com/rafabenitez.com

Rafa Benítez assessed the Audi Cup semi-final, which ended with a Real Madrid win over Tottenham: "The team are very good and compact in defence. It's still early days because so far we have only been in Australia, China and now here. But for the moment I'm happy with the balance of the team".

"Whatever we did today was down to the type of tournament this is. It's very difficult to manage two games in two days at this stage of the season. The changes were not reflective of anything other than finding a way to best manage the squad. Kroos will be a very important player because he possesses so much quality".

Isco

"My opinion about Isco hasn't changed because I already had a good idea about him. His performances reaffirm what we already knew about him, that he's a great player, like many of the others we have in our squad".

"The forward players have the freedom to move around and switch positions. We are trying to make the most of Cristiano, Benzema, Bale, Jesé... Bale knows what he has to do and now we are working on improving the team's physicality, which in turn will result in him improving in terms of finding the target".

The young players

"Rubén Yáñez will be one of the goalkeepers because Pacheco is going out on loan. Marcos Llorente will be working with us and could play for the reserves. We will have to evaluate Mayoral, Asensio and Odegaard and decide what to do with them. They are talented and possess quality and we have to decide what is best for them and their futures".

Benzema

"As I said before, Karim is going to stay here. I don't like to speculate about players' futures. I talk about football, not about other things".