Ahead of today’s trip to former club Valencia, Rafa Benitez has offered his backing to the latest Madrid player to find himself in the headlines, James Rodriguez.

The Colombian could be taken to court after being caught speeding at 200 kilometres per hour in his Audi R8 and failing to stop for the police as he was followed on his way to training on Friday.

James subsequently claimed that he hadn’t noticed the police car or heard its sirens because he was playing loud music, and his manager launched a character defence as he said: “James has explained the situation to us.

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“He’s a good and serious guy. It is a private matter and I will not interfere. There’s nothing more to say.”

Benitez also played down rumours of a rift with midfielder Isco, who has not started a league game since early November and was an unused substitute in the team’s last two games.

“I have always said the same thing: we have 24 players and they can’t all play,” Benitez added.

“Whenever I don’t play someone, I am asked about it. That’s unavoidable. Yesterday I spoke with Isco and congratulated him on his training session. He is a fantastic player but I can only pick 11 players for each game.”

With Benitez’s position at the Bernabeu still under pressure, there have been suggestions that defeat at Mestalla on Sunday could lead to him being sacked amid unhappiness from many Madrid fans.

However, Valencia supporters hold a much higher opinion of their former boss, who led Los Che to two La Liga titles in 2002 and 2004 before leaving for Liverpool.

A section of Valencia fans plan to unfurl a huge banner commemorating his achievements at Mestalla tonight, and he said: “I am very grateful to Valencia’s fans. It will be a special occasion for me. I arrived at Real Madrid with many years of experience and quite a few trophies, hired by a president who has a project that has to be given time.

“The time to make assessments is at the end of the season.”

In addition to giving Madrid an opportunity to move level on points with Barcelona, tonight’s game also carries symbolic importance because it comes exactly a year after a 2-1 defeat in the same venue signalled the beginning of the end for previous boss Carlo Ancelotti.

Having finished 2014 in sparkling form, Ancelotti’s team were never able to fully recover from losing their first game of 2015 at Mestalla.