Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho spoke to the media after the friendly win over Schalke on Sunday. He was asked about the improvements as a team, and whether the fans are ‘excited’ about seeing their team play, to which he said: “We all are. The most important thing is that the players are excited. If the fans are excited, if I’m excited, and if the president is excited, but they aren’t, we have a problem.
“And they’re showing that they are. You can see it in small but significant details, like people who were supposed to report on a certain day after their holidays and came early. The players who arrived on the last day prepared very well individually. We’re playing as a team, and there’s empathy, there’s teamwork. The team is starting to look like a team.”
Mourinho on the match
“Positive. Positive as a team. Positive individually. Obviously, some players arrived later and don’t yet have the same intensity as the guys who came on the first day. Those who started on the first day have had 30 training sessions and 6 matches; those who arrived now have had three or four training sessions.
“There’s obviously a difference in rhythm, intensity, and stamina… But tactically, the ideas are gradually taking shape. The players have superior quality, incredible quality. We’re working very well as a team, with and without the ball… I think it was a very good test, a very good final training session before the real work begins, because the real work is competing, fighting for points. That’s what we love, and we’re right there on the verge of it.”
Mourinho on the new arrivals
“Right now it’s difficult to talk about individual players because we’re growing as a team. We only have good players, very good players, and extremely good players. From the combined efforts of these players, we have to create a very, very good team, and we’re taking the right steps to achieve that.
“I’m also very happy with the recent arrivals. It’s not easy to get into the high intensity we’re working at, having double sessions in the morning with the group and then again at five in the afternoon, which is a really tough workout in incredible heat, and they arrived with a top-notch mentality.
“Then there’s the issue of Kylian [Mbappé] getting 45 minutes, Konaté getting 30, Jude [Bellingham] getting 30, Cucurella getting 30, Diomande getting 30… These are things we analyze scientifically with the data we have and, most importantly, with the players’ own understanding of their bodies. We’ve arrived at this week in very good shape for this point in the season. Let’s go for it.”