Mourinho: The best version of Vinícius has not appeared, and this is what I want tomorrow

José Mourinho, the manager of Real Madrid, spoke about his team's preparations for the upcoming match against Elche, scheduled to take place tomorrow in the 6th round of the Spanish league at the Manuel Martínez Valero Stadium. The coach said: "What do you want in tomorrow's match? I want to win. I want us to play well and achieve victory. I don't want more than that." He added: "The best version of Vinícius is the one that scores goals. It is clear that creating goals is important, very important, as well as working for the team. Commitment, solidarity, and teamwork are all very important, and daily work is also extremely important, and he is doing that very well. There is another version of Vinícius. There is Vinícius who arrived in Lisbon last season, who in the close matches, especially in the knockout games, gets a chance and scores a goal and then goes home. What he lacks now is this very high-level performance, but I am happy with what he is providing." Regarding Arda Güler's development, he said: "There are people more capable than me to talk about his development, because they have been here since he arrived and know how he has changed physically. But for me, his quality of play is amazing. He has great vision, makes good decisions, contributes to organizing play, and provides the team with great stability in its style of play. He also has a special ability to create play; for me, he is a player with immense potential and already has interesting numbers. And of course, we are doing deeper analyses than just the numbers that appear in goals and assists. He is a player with a significant impact." On the team's performance, he stated: "As I said, I may not want to go as far as to describe it as 'top, top, top' three times, but I can say that we are definitely getting closer to 'top, top' level. If I am asking for three months for Real Madrid to appear in the way I want, there are others asking for ten years! Perhaps I did not express the idea well or did not convey it correctly." He emphasized: "What I want to say is that I expect us to be better after three months than we are today, but I do not have anything magical that allows me to say that after three months we will reach an amazing level. I do not have that ability; the ability I have is for our goal in every match and every training session to be improvement. When we play a match and then analyze it and work on the good things and the things that were not good, I believe that the longer the team spends time together, and the longer they work with the coach, the greater their ability to become stronger." He continued regarding pressing for the full 90 minutes on opponents: "It is complicated to explain, because we will be here for a long time, and at the same time, I will tell you things I do not wish to make public. But I do not think it is possible to press high for 90 minutes. I do not think so; that is not our style, and there are very few teams in the world that can do that for the entire match. We need to know how to act when we are advanced on the pitch and to act differently when we are in lower areas. To become a more complete team defensively, we must know how to do both together." He added: "The low defensive block is not something I love, but there are types of players and teams that are more suited to this style. And I do not want there to be a contradiction between what I love and what fits the abilities of my team’s players. I try to find something that distinguishes us as a team, and for me, our identity lies in the ability to press high, regain the ball in advanced areas, and then kill the opponent within three or four seconds of the attacking transition. We have already done that in several matches." He noted: "But when the opponent has the quality and ability to build play, and I have seen so far that all teams have this ability, when we defend deeply, I do not want to deal with it negatively, meaning to say: we are good at counter-attacks and have players up front who can kill the opponent on the counter, so we are fine when we defend low." He continued: "I do not want this mentality, but at the same time, I do not want us to suffer too much when we drop back, so that the opponent gets two or three chances that force the goalkeeper to make great saves, or we suffer from four or five corners. I do not want that. We need to find balance." He concluded regarding Tchouaméni's joining the national team during the upcoming break: "I do not know what the idea of the French national team coach is during the break, and we must respect his idea. I also do not know what is best for him, whether to stay here and train or to get minutes with the national team. Perhaps it is better for him to join the national team while controlling the number of minutes, so he gets a chance to develop without accumulating minutes and efforts. I have not spoken with Zidane, but I believe he is a man with common sense and will know what is best for him. I hope he goes to the national team without negatively affecting the player's future. And without speaking with him, I trust that Zidane will know how to handle it correctly.