David Bettoni knows that time is of the essence for Eden Hazard as he tries to rediscover his best form in a Real Madrid shirt.
The Belgian scored a well-taken goal against Alaves in Los Blancos' 4-1 win at Mendizorroza on Saturday night.
Bettoni led the team in Zinedine Zidane's absence and decided to take Hazard off for Vinicius Junior with 30 minutes of the game remaining, despite the former Chelsea forward's fine display.
"I wanted to get Vinicius on to go a bit more direct with our play," Bettoni explained afterwards.
"Eden has had a difficult season and a half with injuries.
"We have to be patient with him, though we know that patience is hard to come by at Real Madrid. He's getting back to his best with every game he plays."
With Zidane watching from home and calling up to discuss substitutes during the match, Bettoni had an interesting experience as team boss for the night.
"It was a deserved win," the assistant coach said. "We had the ball and we had some good moves.
"We were very serious. I've very happy with the team's performance.
"For substitutes, I wanted to know what the gaffer was thinking, because he's the boss.
"[Zidane] was very happy with the game, with the attitude. He told me to congratulate the players and nothing else special.
"Now we have to think about the next match and have a bit of a rest."
Source: m.allfootballapp.com