Real Madrid were able to put four past Sevilla in a very convincing win at the Bernabeu on Sunday. A lot of the credit will go to the goal scorers, and rightfully so, but it is definitely worth talking about Jose Mourinho's lineup decisions for this match.
There was a lot of talk about Mourinho always fixating on starting Fede Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni together in the midfield. His decision to start Denzel Dumfries up wide back, despite the Dutch player being in poor form, was also criticised by fans.
Although the Vinicius Junior decision wasn't really in his hands, considering the player was suspended, it was still good to see Endrick and Yan Diomande being trusted with the opportunity to play on the wings. He made these decisions, and literally all of them paid off.
Jose Mourinho made all the right decisions against Sevilla
Fede Valverde played right back instead of in midfield and looked really, really good. He is definitely more natural on that side now, and even though he may not like it, he is more of a full-back or a wide player than he is an interior.
Guler dropping into the midfield was also a very good decision that paid off. The Turkish international scored a brilliant goal from outside the box before slinging in passes left, right, and centre for all of the teammates to feast on.
He was not able to get an assist for any of those passes, but the way he created from deep showed that, even though a performance like this may not happen consistently from that position for Guler, it is certainly something that he will be able to specialise in in a few years' time.
Endrick wasn't the most effective on the wing for this particular game, but he wasn't terrible by any means. He still dribbled past a few players here and there, and he had a few good shots from outside the box. He wasn't able to get on the score sheet, but Diomande was, and it just looked more like a cohesive team than 11 individuals, which is the most important thing.
Real Madrid need more of this, even if that means benching some of these superstars, to have a bit more cohesion in the team. That is the way to go. Real Madrid need this badly so that they're able to finally start dominating games the way they used to under the old Mourinho. Whether this happens after Vinicius Junior's return from suspension is a different topic altogether, but this has to at least cross Mourinho's mind before he makes a decision.
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