Madrid Derby defeat an indication of the massive job ahead for Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid

Jose Mourinho walked into the post-match press conference with two big photographs. Those images contained stills of two fouls from Atletico Madrid players Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-in on Jude Bellingham and Fede Valverde. And he started off with the conference saying, “We can skip the press conference as the story of the game is here – they are two clear red cards.”

How Mourinho would have hoped that his Real Madrid side had showed even a fraction of the same defiance he showed on the ground, as his side suffered a 2-1 reverse at the Metropolitano, and that defeat has not only put the Los Blancos 6 points behind leaders Barcelona ahead of a 3-week long international break, but has also brutally highlighted the magnitude of the job that the Portuguese has on his hands at the time of writing.

While the fouls he showed were valid talking points, one cannot look past the disjointed nature of the performance that Real Madrid conjured in what was their first big test of the season. Atletico Madrid were clearly the better side on the day, comfortably outplaying Real in a way that was eerily reminiscent of the 5-2 mauling they suffered to the same opposition when Xabi Alonso was at the helm. 

While the defeat was not as pronounced as the previous one, it has already led them to playing catchup, especially given the fact that Barcelona have started this season like a dream. Many problems lie for Real. To begin with, the front 6 of Bellingham, Valverde, Guler, Tchouameni, Vincius Jr, and Mbappe that started yesterday’s derby also started in the 5-2 defeat. And just like the last one, Real Madrid’s midfield were comfortably overrun and outmatched multiple times in the game. Dean Huijsen is a very talented defender, but once again Atletico targeted the mismatch against him with ruthless efficiency and that led to his sending off and the awarding of the penalty that Alejandro Grimaldo dispatched nervelessly.

After Jonathan David scored to make it 2-0, Mourinho was proactive and made the changes to infuse more attacking thrust in his side, but it failed to have the desired effect as his side got even more passive than before, which did not help matters one bit. 

Vinicius was ineffective, Kylian Mbappe was not his usual self. In fact, a big part of the insipid nature of the attack was that both Vini and Mbappe were occupying pretty much the same attacking positions. This meant that their attacks did not have the same potency and failed to deliver. In fact, it took until the 39th minute for Real Madrid to register a shot on target.

Antonio Rudiger eventually scored, but at the 89th minute, it proved a bit too little too late, and even though Real Madrid did everything they could to get an equaliser, that should not disguise the poor performance that saw them be a shadow of themselves. 

Mourinho and Real Madrid will both stew over the nature of this loss for the next three weeks as they will look for answers quickly and forcefully. Games like these are the ones that earn managers like Mourinho their name, and failure to win these will obviously add to the already mounting pressure that comes with being the manager of Real Madrid, irrespective of going two years without a major trophy.

The derby loss is a big indication of the job that lies ahead of Mourinho. Rectify it, and there is still a big chance he steers things in the right direction. Fail to do so, and people will speak about this is why he has been in 3 clubs in the last 4 years.

No pressure, eh, Jose?