Mourinho: There is a clear problem, and we achieved an important win

José Mourinho, the manager of Real Madrid, confirmed that his team secured three important points after winning against Elche 3-2 in the sixth round of the Spanish league.

José Mourinho, in comments reported by Real Madrid TV, said: "Three points and nothing more. Like Hala Madrid and nothing more. Of course, after the first half, we all felt that we would score three, four, or five goals in the second half. But we reduced the intensity of play, gave away a lot of space, and when Bellingham and Brahim Díaz came on, I tried to give the midfield more cohesion, because Vinícius and Güler were tired."

He added: "When I was thinking about stability, they scored the goal, and in these stadiums filled with fans, teams that seem to be dead can come back to life in an instant. Then came the equalizer. But we have a bench full of talent and different qualities. I risked as much as I could because a draw doesn't serve us, and we managed to score the goal through a very strong reaction, with the feeling that we cannot let the points slip away. The last minutes were very intense, and we succeeded in achieving the victory."

Regarding the pressure of matches during a short period, the Portuguese coach explained: "It is more difficult for other teams that have fewer players and quality. When you ask me about that, I tell you how hard it is for Ancelotti, because his squad will face greater difficulties than ours, and he plays on Saturday. We will do some rotation. We changed many players today, and the only two who played 90 minutes against Inter and Rayo Vallecano today are Konaté and Mbappé. Now we have a short period until the match at the weekend."

José Mourinho emphasized the importance of all players staying focused, stating: "The players are undoubtedly united, enthusiastic, and there is friendship and commitment. In this regard, they cannot be touched. My only criticism is that we can kill matches but we do not do so, and then we give the opponent, who seemed dead, a chance to complicate our lives and put two points at risk. We took a risk, and when I made the changes, as we won, we could have lost."

Regarding the decline that Real Madrid experienced in the second half, Mourinho said: "It is clear that there is a problem. We have 3, 4, 5 chances to finish the match, and we do not do it. Easy chances, and we do not take advantage of them, and after failing to finish them, we go from ease to losing control. We did not score. When everything seems easy, you leave things unresolved. The explanation I find is that if the match seems easy and you do not finish it, you retreat and lose control and misinterpret the ease of the match. This can happen. Nothing is easy."

He continued: "The players need rest, and they will have a day off tomorrow. If we play poorly from the 1st minute to the 90th minute, the concern will be very high. However, if we have wonderful periods and others where we are passive, waiting and lacking the required intensity, it is natural for that to worry me. But we won."

Speaking about Espi's participation, Mourinho said: "He is doing a good job and contributing to the team. He has an extraordinary player in front of him. Playing with both together is not easy, because if that happens, we won't have players on the wings with speed, and the team will lose its balance. With the changes at the end, I risked everything. We won and we could have lost, but we had to do it."

José Mourinho praised the development of Jan Duymandi, saying: "He is developing. Physically, you can see that he has more minutes in his legs. He has a great work ethic and intelligence, and he has done very well."

Regarding the continued reception of goals, Mourinho confirmed that it worries him, saying: "This concerns me in every match, not just before Sunday. I like my team to score goals, and to always score, except for the match against Betis. I like that, but I like to control matches, and I don't like to gift the opponent anything. Elche played well and made changes that altered their structure. We have a bench that has many solutions, and within ten minutes we created very dangerous chances. We scored, we won, three points and nothing more."

Regarding the substitution of Arda Güler and whether the player is irreplaceable, Mourinho replied: "No, no one is irreplaceable. We were losing control when I made the changes, and Vinícius did very well defensively, but he was tired. And Arda, who played in the number 10 position, also started to lower the intensity of the play. I brought in Jude and Brahim, who were fresh, and I did that with the score at 2-0, but I felt we were losing control. That's how things happen with us. After that, we threw in all the heavy attacking weapons and managed to secure the match."

He concluded his remarks on Aurélien Tchouaméni's performance: "When the team was good, he and Valverde were good. They broke the pressure easily and with quality. But the match had three faces, or rather three periods: the first until 0-2, the second until 2-2, the third until the end. They did a good job."