Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho spoke to the media after the team narrowly beat Elche 3-2 after giving away a two-goal lead. Mourinho was asked about the near-collapse, to which he said: “It seems obvious to me. It’s easy to understand. These are games that are already decided, where we have chances to finish them off and we don’t. After not finishing them off, we go from having it easy to not controlling the game. We didn’t score. When everything seems easy, you leave things unfinished. The explanation
I can find is that if the game seems easy and you don’t put it away, then you drop off, you lose control, you misinterpret what was easy. It can happen. Nothing is easy. The players need to rest; they have a day off tomorrow. If we play badly, from the first minute to the 90th, the concern is huge. If we have periods of brilliance and others that are not proactive, just waiting, without intensity… Of course it’s worrying. But we won.”
Mourinho on the game
“Three points and nothing more. It’s just like ‘Hala Madrid’ and nothing more. Obviously, after the first half, we all had the feeling that three, four, or five would come in the second. But we lowered the intensity, gave them too much space, and when Bellingham and Brahim came on, I tried to give the midfield some stability because Vinicius and Güler were tired. But just when I was thinking about stability, they made it 1-2, and in these packed stadiums, teams that seem dead… in a flash, they’re back to life. Then came the 2-2. But we have a bench full of talent, and different kinds of talent. I took maximum risks… but a draw isn’t enough. And we scored with a very strong reaction. With that feeling that we couldn’t drop points. The final stretch was incredibly strong. We did it.”
Mourinho on Carlos Espi
“He’s doing well, he’s contributing to the team. He has an exceptional player ahead of him. Playing with both of them together isn’t easy. Otherwise, we don’t have players on the wings to be fast, and the team loses its balance. With the substitutions at the end, I risked everything. We won, we could have lost, but we had to do it.”
Mourinho on whether Arda Guler is untouchable
“No, nobody is indispensable. We were losing control when I made the changes. Vini did a very good job defensively, but he was very tired. And Arda, who played in that number 10 position, was also dropping his intensity. I brought on fresh Jude and Brahim when we were 2-0 down, but I sensed we were losing control. That’s what happens to us. And then, we went for the big guns and pulled it off.”
Mourinho on conceding goals
“I’m concerned about every game, not just Sunday’s. I like my team to score goals, to score every time, except against Betis. I like it. But I like to control games, I don’t like to give anything away. Elche played well, they made changes that altered their formation. We have a bench with many options and in ten minutes we had some very dangerous chances. We scored, we won, three points, nothing more.”
Mourinho on Yan Diomande
“He’s growing. Physically, you can see he’s got more playing time under his belt. He has a great work ethic, intelligence, and has done a great job.”
Mourinho on Aurelien Tchouameni
“When the team was playing well, he and Valverde were playing well. They broke the pressure easily, with quality. But the game had two halves, or rather three: one until 0-2, another until 2-2, and another until the end. They did a good job.”
Mourinho on unity
“The team is united, without a doubt. Motivated. They have camaraderie, commitment. In that respect, they’re untouchable. My only criticism is that we could have killed games and we didn’t. And then, we gave an opponent who seemed finished the chance to make things difficult for us. And we risked two points. We took a risk, and when I made the changes, just as we won, we could have lost.”
Mourinho on managing three games in a week
“It’s more difficult for other teams that have fewer players and less quality. You ask me, and I’ll tell you how difficult it is for Anselmi, whose squad will have more difficulties than ours and plays on Saturday. We’ll make some adjustments. We changed a lot of players today: only Konaté and Mbappé played the full 90 minutes against Inter, Rayo, and today. Now we have a short gap until the weekend’s match.”
