Jose Mourinho spoke to the media ahead of Real Madrid’s return to action against Villarreal on Saturday. He was asked about whether a player will play based on meritocracy, to which he said: “Meritocracy, yes, but also an openness not for the name, but for the moment. Knowing what might be the best way to help a particular player. There are players who, when they’re not playing well, there are strategies to help them improve. One is pure meritocracy, and if you’re not playing well, you’re out. It
has risks. There are players who take time to get back to their normal level. You’re referring to Vini. I’m not hiding anything. What hurts me, what makes me sad, is understanding that he wants to be well, he wants to be the one who wins games, who makes the difference. What hurts me is feeling this pain he feels, being a guy who, to my surprise, is extraordinary and works so hard to come back. Will he always play until he returns, or will there come a time when there’s a specific plan where he doesn’t play or goes to the bench, and we find another way? I don’t touch true Real Madrid fans. I only respect them.” But it breaks my heart to see a boy like him, who isn’t the Vinicius of this otherworldly world, not being helped by people influenced by many of you. He deserves to be helped. He desperately wants to be the Vinicius who has brought so much joy to Real Madrid fans.”
Mourinho on the game vs Villarreal
“Our opponent is a Champions League team. A top-level team. They play very well. They don’t have the points they’re going to have. They’re going to be much higher in the standings. After losing our last match, we need to get the points. The preparation isn’t easy. We’re down to five players. The others were arriving after their last international matches and the days off we gave them. Villarreal isn’t in our situation, but they’ve also had players away on international duty. It hasn’t been a perfect week for them either.”
Mourinho on the Mbappe story
“If this happens, it will be a great victory for you (press). Not even huge cases like City, the old story you love to talk about, the difficult situation in my country with Cristiano and his coach—so many cases that could have fueled your work—but it hasn’t been enough. Real Madrid is Real Madrid, and you always have to find something. I expected the first one to be the only one about something real. A difficult match. Yours is the first… But, here we are.”
Mourinho on whether the stuff about him is exaggerated
“Ridiculous.”
Mourinho on managing players’ private lives
“For me, a player is a player 24 hours a day. Anything important or negative he does privately always has repercussions. I always maintain that a player will always be a human being. A man who can make mistakes, but who has a sense of responsibility. I, honestly, haven’t been here in Spain for 13 years. You know me. I don’t lie. I might try to escape, be clever and avoid some more complicated issues, but I don’t lie. At any level. If you ask me who’s going to start, I won’t tell you, but I won’t say he’s not going to play and then he does. During this period, the players have been exemplary. We worked to ensure they had no doubts about their availability for their national teams, when they needed free time. Everything was perfectly defined. Everyone has complied. The injured players come to Valdebebas immediately. They have their diagnoses, recovery plans… Players like Arda, who was suspended for the fourth match, I gave him two unscheduled days off.” People with serious injuries have been here every day. Valverde, Konaté. Mbappé, for example. He’s been here, he’s had a diagnosis. He went for an outpatient consultation because his knee has a history that can’t be forgotten. Complete agreement between diagnoses. Recovery plan that you don’t need to know in detail. And then, there’s the realm of troublemaking. The real problems that football has had these past couple of weeks haven’t been enough, so there’s this search for problems. First, the nightclub that wasn’t a nightclub. Because it was a venue for a private event during Paris Fashion Week. Then, the bicycle in Switzerland, which was a hotel with small houses. They were bicycles for getting around to common areas in a quiet hotel. And it seems he was doing the Tour de Suisse. Then, poor Huijsen, who was standing in front of Pitarch’s house sending a message, and suddenly he’s practically a criminal on the highway at 200 km/h sending messages. I’m knocking on wood, because football is football. I’m giving you the story. This is the first time in 10 years that Real Madrid has arrived in mid-October without any injuries. They’re all injuries from last season. It’s a first. It’s a good story, but you don’t like it.”
Mourinho on why fans are upset with Mbappe
“This is one of your objectives. You don’t need to be Einstein to understand that this is the objective. I prefer not to speak about who it is; I could be wrong, but it is one of the objectives. I won’t comment on the Bernabéu. I respect it. My hope is that the Bernabéu will be able to be fair. To be fair is to be intelligent. To read between the lines and understand the dynamics. To understand the objectives. I promise that if a Real Madrid player doesn’t behave like a Real Madrid player and fails as a Real Madrid player, if he doesn’t fulfill his obligations as a player or as a citizen, you won’t see that player on the bench. You won’t be able to boo him. He’ll be at home. I won’t give him the opportunity to sit on the bench. Mbappé will play. He won’t even be on the bench. I’m sure he hasn’t failed in his obligations to Real Madrid.”
Mourinho on the second part of the season
“We’ve been here, and when you have little actual fieldwork, you have much more time to analyze every detail. In this first period, we’ve found many good things and things to improve. It doesn’t mean we have to change drastically. You need work and time for that. I can’t just arrive with one or two days and say, ‘Let’s start playing with five at the back, four in midfield, and change the full-back.’ You can’t. Yesterday, I read something curious that shouldn’t happen at Real Madrid. Mikel Arteta has renewed his contract. He said that we’re just starting out and that there’s a lot to do. Real Madrid is coming off a difficult period. What would be a normal situation for others… Real Madrid is to blame. Because they’ve won so much in the last ten years, and even before, everything takes on a different dimension. We need time to improve things. There are things that improve gradually, and we’re doing that. Yesterday we worked on these aspects. We have things to improve.” I’m not adamant that we should have won the match against Atlético because it should have been 11 against 9. We need to look for improvements in things that are within our control. Perhaps, to the untrained eye, many people won’t be able to understand it. But we will try to make adjustments to improve in some areas.”
Mourinho on Yan Diomande
“I’m not going to answer whether he’ll play or not. I don’t lie, and I’m not going to say who’s going to play. I don’t want to lie to you. Real Madrid can play with anyone from the squad up front. We have a lot of quality players. They can’t all play together. If you want four attackers, you can. Against Elche, we played with six for the last few minutes. But in a balanced situation with controlled risks, we can’t play with seven at once. We can’t play all of them.”
Mourinho on what he did during the break
“I spent two or three days straight after the last match trying to analyze every possible detail, so I wouldn’t get stuck on the obvious. But the obvious thing that’s not under my control is that it was an eleven-against-nine game. I didn’t want to dwell on that. Then, I spent three days away watching London and Portugal, and then I came back and worked incredibly hard. Little time on the pitch and a lot here. I’ve meticulously prepared for their arrival. Some arrive on Tuesday, Wednesday; some play, others don’t; some are jet-lagged, others haven’t slept… It’s complex. We’re working very well organizationally. We could have an injury in ten minutes, but not having any injuries isn’t something we forget here. Many things have changed, and we’re doing well. We’re preparing for the future as best we can.”
Mourinho on Fede Valverde and Eder Militao
“Fede is the doubt. Militao isn’t a doubt, he won’t be available. But seeing him train the way he does, we’ve never trained with just five players. Always 20. We’ve trained with youth team players. Sometimes Castilla would come, other times the C team, other times the youth team mixed with players from Castilla and the C team. If you don’t know Militao’s problems, you’d put him in tomorrow. I joke with him and ask, ‘Are you going to play?’ He’s better than I thought. He won’t be available tomorrow, neither in Rome nor against Sevilla. He needs a couple of weeks. His medical history is quite extensive, and we have to be careful. Mendy will train on the pitch with us for the first time. Rodrygo is further away. Valverde, the problem has persisted until today. We’ll decide about tomorrow today.”
