Real Madrid coach José Mourinho previewed the Madrid derby on Sunday by playing down media comparisons with FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid as he said: “first of all, I think that, historically and culturally, Real Madrid cannot be compared to anyone, absolutely anyone. And that’s why I’m not going to compare us to any other team. I’m talking about us; I have no problem talking about our problems, and I have no problem talking about the things we need to improve. Even though, in the few months I’ve
been here during my second spell, I’ve come to realise more and more that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to hear anything positive about Real Madrid. But we carry on with our work humbly, as I said before, fully aware of the problems we face and the areas where we need to improve, whilst also being very conscious of the strength we possess, both individually and collectively, and of the excellent qualities we also have in our team. And in the matches – the three matches in which, for example, we’ve reached the final minutes needing to score, either to win or to draw, as against Betis – we’ve finished these three matches with physical and psychological strength, commitment and determination… It’s fair to say: it’s not normal to be leading Elche 2–0 and then find yourself level in the 80th minute or thereabouts. But neither is it normal to be level in the 80th minute or thereabouts, nor is it normal that, in the space of three or four minutes, the team turns things around, goes behind, has a chance to score, has another, scores and wins. Nor is it normal to be losing at Betis after conceding a goal almost at the very end, yet still have the physical and mental strength, the heart and the determination, with Espí scoring an incredible goal, and then to have a penalty missed, yet still have the strength left in the remaining minutes to give it our all. This team possesses, beyond its sheer quality, a strength that means a great deal to me: the strength of a group. And that’s why I’m confident that, whatever happens, the league is a marathon. The league isn’t always a motorway; it isn’t always a motorway without any obstacles whatsoever, but we’ll be there. I don’t want to make comparisons. Don’t ask me to compare one squad with another; don’t ask me to compare Oblak with Courtois or Romero with Rüdiger, that’s not my style. What I’m saying is that it’s a strong squad, with plenty of options, and a great manager who knows what he wants, who picks players he likes, picks players who embody his vision, picks players who are part of his DNA. It’s the result of many years of hard work, and it’s a team that, to me, when I look at them, I believe will be right there fighting for the title.”
Mourinho on the significance of a derby
“A derby always has something extra. Derbies are history, they’re culture, they’re the fans’ passion, and they represent a long-standing connection. I’m sure you understand what it means, but, above all, it’s a match and it also has to be viewed with the same pragmatism with which it’s played.”
Mourinho on the process of improving the team
“I don’t know if we’ll manage it, but that’s the intention, mine and the players’ too. I don’t know if I’ll manage it as a manager, I don’t know if the players, as players, will manage it, but that’s the intention. In the first question, your colleague from Real Madrid touched on the issue of so many matches in a row, but we’ve tried to find a day, a moment, a few short periods to work on the things we need to improve, and this is a process. If there are people who manage their clubs for one, two, three, four, five or ten years in a row and there’s always talk of processes, there’s always talk of progress, there’s always talk of time to work on things, to improve, just imagine that we’ve only been together for a few months; we’ve played I don’t know how many matches, seven or eight competitive fixtures. We need to improve, but we also need to get results, and that’s what we’re working towards. Yesterday, for example, we worked on things; today too, after you’d all left, we’d been working because, obviously, there are things we need to improve on, and we obviously have a lot of confidence in ourselves, but at the same time, we also have the humility to know that we need to work to improve.”
Mourinho on questions about penalties
“No, it’s too late now because… No, but it’s true, because after that matchday we had another one, and on that other matchday there were more questions you could have asked me. I think, for example, you could have asked me a very clear and obvious question: what do I think about Elche finishing the match with 11 players? But if we’re going to go down that road, we’ll end up talking about tomorrow’s match, and I’d rather say that, although it’s a bit strange that a week ago we already knew who the referee for tomorrow’s match would be, I’d rather say that, if he’s been appointed, it’s because he’s a good referee; it’s because he has enough experience for a match of this emotional magnitude. I don’t like to talk about referees before matches, and he has my full confidence. We’ll see after the match, but for now he has my full confidence.”
Mourinho on the timing of the press conference
“No, I didn’t even know when Simeone was holding his press conference until now; I had no idea. It didn’t suit us in the morning because we had work to do downstairs and meetings with the players as well. Obviously, after training I rushed out to try and catch as much of the Bernabéu match as possible, but nothing came of it; under no circumstances would I gain any advantage from speaking before or after Diego.”
Mourinho on whether the derby is special for Vinícius
“I think it’s the same for everyone. I don’t know; perhaps for the players who’ve been at Real Madrid longer, given that historic negative record you mentioned earlier, there might be something more to it, but I don’t think so. I think we’re all in this together; we’re all aware of the difficulty of the match, and also of what I was saying earlier. It’s a derby, it’s culture, it’s history. The history of football, the history of the city, it always means something more. But the match is just as important for Vinícius as it is for any of us.”
Mourinho on the situation with the Ceuta shirt
“I talk about football.”
Mourinho on the evolution of his ideas as a coach
“Evolving in line with my players, because it’s one thing to have your own idea of the sort of football you prefer at different stages of the game, at different stages of a team’s organisation, and quite another to see what you can actually achieve with the players you have. I think one of my qualities as a manager, which some might see as a positive, whilst others might view as a negative, is that I’ve always tried to adapt to my players’ potential and their individual qualities. I’ve always said that, for example, my Inter side could sit deep for 90 minutes, that we’d always be in our comfort zone. We could stay there for three days sitting deep, and they wouldn’t score against us if their lives depended on it. It’s down to the players’ profiles, the team’s profile. If you ask me whether I like defending deep, I’ll tell you: I like knowing how to defend deep. Because it’s very difficult, during a match, not to go through periods of defending deep. And when you go through those periods, which sometimes last two minutes, three minutes, sometimes 10 minutes, 20 minutes, you have to know how to cope. And that’s one of the things we’re working on to improve. It doesn’t mean that’s what we want, but we have to have the awareness and the humility to know that we’re going to go through moments like these, whether in the league or in the Champions League; we’re going to go through them, and we have to know how to handle them, we have to know how to compete.”
Mourinho on motivation at this stage of his career
“It motivates me every day. When you say… I understand you’re saying it with respect, and I want to respond with respect too. When you say ‘at this stage of my career’, my career, from the very first day to the very last, will always be the same. If you know what I mean. It’s not my age, my experience or the length of my career that make me change the way I am, the way I carry myself. I’m just as motivated to play against Villarreal next week… No, not next week, next matchday against Villarreal. I’m just as motivated to play against Villarreal as I am for a Clásico or a derby, it makes absolutely no difference to me. In terms of motivation, it makes absolutely no difference to me. As I was saying before, the classics, the derbies, are culture, they’re history; they’re part of history and, obviously, that’s why they have that extra something. But when you talk about motivation, motivation is a daily thing. It’s hard to put into words because, when you wear a club’s shirt, you immediately start to feel, just like a fan, you immediately start to feel the significance of it all. There isn’t a single derby where, the week before the match, you don’t walk down the street without someone saying to you: ‘We’re going to take Juve down, we’re going to give them a proper thrashing’. You know, it’s a situation where either you cut yourself off and have no contact with the outside world, or, if you don’t, well, the message gets through. And they’re all special derbies. What surprised me most, because it was so unexpected, was Milan v Inter, because I thought it was a derby with a lot, well, not a lot, but a bit of animosity, which there’s always a bit of in these cultural contexts. And it surprised me because Inter and Milan have a good relationship; they’re friends. The animosity lies a bit further north. And I wasn’t expecting… I arrived and, when the first Inter–Milan match came round, the people on the street, men and women holding hands, one wearing one club’s shirt, the other wearing the other’s, a dad with two sons, one a Milan fan and the other an Inter fan. That’s what surprised me. Because in Portugal, for example, it’s mission impossible; in Turkey, don’t even get me started.”
Mourinho on his relationship with Diego Simeone
“Look, so much nonsense gets said during your career that, if you go back, back, back, there isn’t a single one of us, and when I say ‘us’, I don’t mean just Diego and me, I mean all of us, who doesn’t spout their own nonsense, who doesn’t say things in the heat of the moment, influenced by the moment. Sometimes we say things strategically too, but in the end, either you respect someone or you don’t, you know? For me, the day they got in touch to ask if I could talk about Diego for their documentary a few years back, I didn’t think twice about it. He knows exactly how I feel, what I think, and there you have it: rivals once again, but comrades-in-arms.”
Mourinho on the fixture list and the international break
“Look, but what can we do? Right? We can only adapt. In our case, well, just imagine: four players are left behind; four players are left behind for 20 days, 15, 18, 19 days, four players are left behind. Then they’ll start arriving: one three days before the Villarreal game, another four days before, another two days before, he’s coming from India, and the Brazilians from India, Valverde and others are travelling halfway round the world to get here. In other words, for the European players, it’s four tough matches, because we’re talking about this Nations League where everyone is on the same level. Spain play England, and I don’t know who else; France play Turkey, and they play Belgium. They’re tough matches, and there are a lot of them. In my case, it’s tough, it’s really tough, because then comes Villarreal, three days later, and then Roma, right? Roma straight after. It’s tough. But, at the same time, it means we have very good players who are called up by their national teams. We’re going to try to support them as much as possible; we’ll be paying very close attention to the minutes they play, if we have access to that information, because not all coaches will give us access to details of their training sessions, but we’re going to try to be as thorough as possible to minimise any potential problems.”
Mourinho on Zidane’s decision regarding Tchouameni
“Look, I had no influence on the decision. I didn’t ring Zidane, Zidane didn’t ring me, we haven’t had any contact. The situation took me a bit by surprise, but the two of them have spoken, the manager and the player have had a chat, and they’ve both come to the conclusion that, for Aurélien, the best thing would be, after tomorrow’s match, to have time to, let’s say, do the pre-season he hasn’t done. The manager has shared his view of the situation with him, told him he’s counting on him for the future, and they’ve agreed on this – which is a privilege for us, because Aurélien will then have his days off and afterwards he’ll have the pre-season he’s missed, where he can work hard and build up his strength for what lies ahead.”
Mourinho on his rating of his first 100 days
“No, the mark I’d give myself is that I’ve given my all; I can’t give any more. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to give our all to improve every day at every level, because the job of a coach, in my case, I don’t think we’re all the same, but in my case it’s not just about training and playing. A coach’s job, from my point of view, is much more all-encompassing; it has a much greater influence on the development of a club, in this case, the footballing side of a club, and the actual coaching itself, choosing who plays, playing, making substitutions, that, to me, is minor; it’s very basic. And I don’t give myself a mark; I don’t think it’s perfect or that it’s negative, but I don’t give myself a mark at all.”
