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Three things to watch out for as Mourinho begins pre-season with Real Madrid
Jose Mourinho is officially back as Real Madrid’s new manager, and he is set to begin his pre-season campaign on Monday the 13th of July.
Coming in to replace Alvaro Arbeloa after a disappointing spell at the club and given Real Madrid’s trophy drought for two seasons, the new manager will not have much time to get the side back on track.
There is, however, a lot of internal support for Mourinho and belief in the manager’s ability to bring the best out of the squad, especially given the quality in the dressing room.
On paper, Real Madrid have one of the most fearsome squads in Europe. That, however, has not translated to results and Mourinho is out on a mission to change that. His pre-season campaign, needless to say, will be critical on that front as well.
Madrid Universal brings you three things to watch out for as Mourinho begins pre-season with Real Madrid.
Will Mourinho trust the youngsters?
The ongoing FIFA World Cup presents Jose Mourinho with a relatively complicated pre-season campaign with Real Madrid this summer, for the manager will be unable to count on many of the team’s regular starters from the get-go.
After all, the creme-de-la-creme of the squad either participated in or are still participating in the event, and the coach will have to make do with the remaining names for the initial stage of his pre-season.
To make up numbers, Mourinho is thus expected to count on numerous academy stars in the first few weeks of the pre-season campaign, and one is forced to ponder if the situation leaves any chance for an academy star to have a season-long role.
Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso’s recent stints at Real Madrid handed a real chance to academy graduates to stand out, and the result was evident with the likes of David Jimenez, Thiago Pitarch, Cesar Palacios, Jorge Cestero and others earning debuts.
The aforementioned stars, quite clearly, will be involved in Mourinho’s pre-season with Real Madrid which is set to begin next week, and all that remains to be seen is which of the youngsters the manager takes a liking to.
Over the years, the ‘Special One’ has not been one to fancy academy players and has always preferred big-money signings and instant solutions.
Should any of the aforementioned names impress the manager, however, it would help the club make a massive saving on their transfer budget and possibly even re-allot the budget to a higher priority department.
A sneak peek into the manager’s tactics
Ahead of Mourinho’s first season back in charge of Real Madrid, the big question is around what tactics the manager will deploy once the campaign begins. That question will begin to find its answer in the coming weeks.
So far, Mourinho has only prioritised defensive signings for his project and it is clear that the backline will play an important role in his dynamics.
He will have the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alvaro Carreras, Dean Huijsen and Raul Asencio from the get-go, and it will be interesting to see how he lines up his defence.
In midfield, Mourinho continues to push for new signings but has not received any new names so far barring Bernardo Silva.
He will be without most of his players in the department for pre-season, but Eduardo Camavinga will be available and Arda Guler and Federico Valverde are also expected back soon.
What also remains to be seen is what the coach has in mind to make up for Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr.’s lack of effort off the ball, for that was one of Real Madrid’s biggest limiting factors last season.
Should the Portuguese manager be able to solve that crisis, a big part of the puzzle will be solved in the dressing room.
New signings remain unavailable
While Mourinho will indeed look to implement his ideologies and create an amicable environment from day one, the lack of multiple first-team players does indeed arrive as a significant blow.
Keeping the regular starters aside, however, what will be a bigger concern for the manager is the unavailability of new signings whom he has personally asked for this summer.
Ibrahima Konate and Marc Cucurella continue to remain alive in the World Cup with France and Spain respectively, while Bernardo Silva and Denzel Dumfries are out of the event.
The latter is expected back in training by mid-July, but the former could join only towards the end of the month at the same time as Vinicius Jr and the rest of the Brazilian contingent.
Cucurella and Konate, meanwhile, are only expected back in August in what comes as a massive blow to Mourinho’s plans.
Needless to say, the idea would have been to have all new signings under his command from day one so that Mourinho can instil in their minds what he expects of them. At this point, however, not having them available could seriously hurt the coach’s plans.
Not many saw the result that unfolded at the Estadio de La Cartuja last night coming, as Real Madrid slipped to a shocking 1-0 defeat to Real Betis.
Jose Mourinho made a couple of changes to his team on the night but fielded one of his strongest possible XIs, acknowledging the difficulty of the challenge Los Verdiblancos posed.
The first half ended scoreless, with the visitors completely dominating the flow of the game but failing to convert their chances. After the break, they only upped the ante and pressed higher to break the deadlock.
Almost against the flow of the game, however, Troy Parrott fired from very close range to put his side ahead through a set-piece, and Real Madrid had just ten minutes to find two goals.
A hard-fought ten minutes, a disallowed goal and a missed penalty later, however, the full-time whistle blew with Real Madrid staring at defeat.
Madrid Universal brings you three takeaways from Real Betis 1-0 Real Madrid.
A first loss under Mourinho
Real Madrid’s lacunae were visible in the team’s first away clash of the new season when they took home a last-gasp win over Espanyol.
They looked comfortable at home, but it has always been clear that they are not invincible.
A first defeat of the season, in that sense, was always just a matter of time as the team continued to develop under Jose Mourinho, and that setback appeared early in the campaign last night.
The defeat to Real Betis at the Estadio de La Cartuja continued Real Madrid’s trend of struggling away from home and exposed the team’s lacunae to the world once more.
A lot can be said about the refereeing and how the result was harsh on Los Blancos, but the fact of the matter remains that a team with the talent that Real Madrid possesses simply has no excuses to look so blunt in attack.
Jose Mourinho’s men created chances in abundance on the night, but none of the team’s star forwards could effectively finish a single chance.
Kylian Mbappe had a rare off-night and even Jude Bellingham did not score from any of his three shots. Vinicius Jr., Arda Guler, Yan Diomande and Carlos Espi all had their chances, but all failed to bury even a single chance.
In the end, it can be called misfortune, but for Real Madrid to have made nothing of an xG of 3.46 and to miss a penalty in the same game has to be dug into. The players did not play poorly, but the lack of a lethal finish came back to bite them.
Mbappe’s controversial penalty
Real Madrid had a massive chance to salvage something from the frustrating night in the 94th minute when the referee awarded the visitors a penalty that would see them return to level terms.
Kylian Mbappe stepped up, and it was taken for granted that the Frenchman would score as usual. Astonishingly, however, Mbappe did not find the back of the net.
For starters, it must be said that the Merengues have no one to blame but themselves for the defeat to Real Betis, for they could not have had a clearer chance to steal at least a point away from the night.
However, there was a clear element of controversy in the spot-kick that must not be misinterpreted as an excuse.
At the precise moment that Mbappe struck the ball from the spot, a Real Betis player was half inside the penalty area with his foot in the air.
Had the player’s foot been on the ground, the penalty would certainly have been retaken, and had he been outside the area, the save would be deemed completely fair. His foot being airborne, yet inside the box, however, opens up a grey area.
The referee on the night believed that having the foot in the air did not warrant a retake, and saw Real Madrid lose their penalty.
However, there are strong grounds to claim that it should have been retaken as his foot being inside the box takes precedence over whether it was grounded or not.
Had the referee’s decision gone differently, one would have backed Mbappe to come good the second time and Real Madrid would have avoided the defeat.
Alvaro Valles deserves his flowers
For Real Madrid to create seven big chances, have 20 shots and an xG of 3.46, and yet not score is simply absurd. But it happened last night against Los Verdiblancos, and only one man stood in between Real Madrid and the scoresheet – Alvaro Valles.
The Real Betis goalkeeper delivered the performance of his lifetime as he stopped chance after chance and denied the visitors any sight of goal.
In 90 minutes, Valles made a staggering six saves, all of which came from inside the box, and prevented a direct xG of 2.98. In simpler terms, Real Madrid should have scored three goals past him with the quality of chances they had, but he directly stopped them all.
Further, Valles saved Mbappe’s penalty under the highest of pressure in a moment that was simply the crowning moment of his entire night.
On a different night, with a different goalkeeper, the outcome of the game could well have been very different.
Valles, however, deserves every bit of praise he is earning for his performance last night, and even Real Madrid fans have no option but to stand and applaud the shift he put in for ninety minutes.
