Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho spoke to the media after their 4-1 win over Sevilla on Sunday night. He was asked about Fede Valverde\u2019s performance at right-back, to which he answered: \u201cThis is Valverde, one of the most versatile players in football. He can play anywhere and at a very high level. He\u2019s had a great game; it\u2019s not easy for a coach to leave two quality full-backs on the bench, but my feeling was that behind Endrick, I\u2019d really benefit from a full-back with attacking flair and the quality to play. And Fede has done very well. But I can\u2019t convince him of anything. He\u2019s the captain; if he has to play goalkeeper, I\u2019ll give him the gloves and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good match overall, with many players who individually performed at a high level. We controlled it from the first minute to the last. We scored quality goals and had possession, which doesn\u2019t always reflect the true nature of the game, but today it justifies our dominance. It\u2019s not just about winning, which is the most important thing. It\u2019s about winning, playing well, and having positive feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on Luis Garcia\u2019s quotes<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to comment. I want to avoid commenting on Luis\u2019s words, but regarding that incident, no one has shown me what they\u2019re saying happened. I don\u2019t have a clear image; I\u2019ve asked for footage from the TV cameras, from my tactical camera analysts, and I haven\u2019t been able to see what they\u2019re talking about or what bothered Luis. I\u2019m being honest, if one day I think we\u2019ve been favored, I won\u2019t have a problem coming out and saying so. But I think the opposite is going to happen to us much more often; it\u2019s the natural order of things. If someone sends me a clear image of something I haven\u2019t seen by Saturday, I\u2019ll be there. But for now, nothing. For a coach who\u2019s losing by four goals and is given the opportunity to answer four or five questions about something that didn\u2019t happen\u2026 It\u2019s good for him. Maybe there are other cameras, but for now, nothing. Has anyone seen a clear image?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a lot to improve. He\u2019s young, he\u2019s naive, an unfinished product. The demands here are very high. Instead of playing like a true player, he plays like a true 125 of what he was paid for\u2026 He has a lot to improve, but he played a great game. He can still improve his finishing. He gets into dangerous areas a lot, but he still struggles to relax in the final second, to look up, to look at his teammates\u2026 This will come. He reminds me of Vinicius when he arrived at Real Madrid, and three years later he was a top-level player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on changing certain positions<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m only thinking about the Champions League until Wednesday at 11:00 PM, then I\u2019ll focus on the Cl\u00e1sico on Sunday. I\u2019ve changed a few things, but I\u2019ve maintained a certain logic. There were signs in parts of matches that indicated things could work well. This meritocracy thing is very abstract; for me, it\u2019s difficult to say which 11 deserve to play. There are many who deserve to play. Imagine, the one who scored the winning goal in Rome (R\u00fcdiger) stayed on the bench and didn\u2019t play a single minute. I think it was a very good match.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll start on Wednesday. The Champions League will keep him motivated. I hope he does well; he\u2019s fresh, he worked hard on his fitness since he didn\u2019t play today. And I hope things go as they deserve and as we need them to because Leipzig isn\u2019t the same team that lost to Bayern. It\u2019s a different team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on officiating between Barcelona and Betis<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see the game. I watched Leipzig. Even though the players aren\u2019t in a training camp, I usually do; I\u2019m old school, and I watched Bayern-Leipzig. I swear, I\u2019m not kidding. I heard about it later, but it\u2019s not a surprise to me. Just another day at the office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on the entire squad\u2019s importance<\/p>\n
\u201cEach one contributes in their own way. Courtois is playing at a very high level, it\u2019s also Lunin\u2019s responsibility, as I said yesterday. There\u2019s no single way to evaluate meritocracy. In my case, there are 24 who deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very good. He\u2019s only been training with the group for three weeks after being away for so long. He still has a long way to go, but you can see his potential in training. He\u2019s a very important player for the team. We have to be patient, we have to give him these small opportunities so his confidence can grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on playing Leipzig<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be ideal. There are two objectives in those eight matches: to qualify and then to reach the top eight, which gives you two fewer playoff matches. Last season, Real Madrid had to play those matches, and they\u2019re not welcome games. We earned six points against the two best Italian teams. Leipzig is a very good team that\u2019s coming off a tough loss against Bayern, and teams that are hurting are more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on three consecutive wins<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we played a great match today. In Rome, an extremely difficult game, the team knew how to react. We are a team and we always work as a team to improve. We\u2019ve only been together a very short time. It\u2019s difficult to have the peace of mind that other coaches have at other clubs, but we\u2019re making the most of every minute we have, and tomorrow we\u2019re back to training, because we\u2019re playing against another team that already played yesterday and has a 24-hour advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho spoke to the media after their 4-1 win over Sevilla on Sunday night.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[64725,403,99],"class_list":["post-887292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-real-madrid-cf-la-liga","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}