Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho declined to answer whether Yan Diomande will play against Villarreal on Saturday night. Real Madrid are returning to action after a three-week period of international matches, where most of their players went to their respective national teams and played a total of four games, as opposed to the usual two.
Now comes the tough part of the season, where Real Madrid have a billion games to play in the next couple of months, which is exactly why Mourinho would need his squad to be as fit and in form as possible. He was asked about Yan Diomande's minutes, which will inevitably increase during this period because of the number of games Real Madrid will be playing. He never actually ended up giving a direct answer as to whether the Ivory Coast international will be playing or starting against the Yellow Submarine on Saturday.
He said, "I'm not going to answer whether he will play or not. I do not lie, and I am not going to say who is going to play. I do not want to lie to you. Real Madrid can play with anyone from the squad up front. We have a lot of quality players. They cannot all play together. If you want four attackers, you can. Against Elche, we played with six for the last few minutes, but in a balanced situation with controlled risks, we cannot play with seven at once. We cannot play all of them."
Yan Diomande must be eased into the Real Madrid picture
It is not a direct answer as to whether Diomande will play or not, but it might actually be an indirect no for the winger. Diomande has not played many minutes for Real Madrid since he joined the club for a record fee. A lot of that is going to be down to his age and the fact that Mourinho would not want him to be under pressure all the time. In that sense, it makes sense if he does not want to start Diomande.
To be absolutely fair to the Portuguese manager, his statement is correct. For any team, let alone Real Madrid, someone will have to be benched. You cannot play all of your star players in the same team just because they are star players. You will have to find the balance and bench a couple of big players here and there. That is not to say Diomande will be one of them when the time comes against Villarreal, but it does not say that it won't be him either.
The truth is, Diomande has not played well enough to be a nailed-on starter just yet, and putting him under pressure like that is something Mourinho would never do. He might say that about a Kylian Mbappe or a Vinicius Junior, but with a young player like Diomande, he will not take any risks, even if he is planning on starting him against Villarreal.
If I had to make a guess from these statements, it would probably be that Diomande will come off the bench against Villarreal and will eventually get a few starts here and there as Real Madrid prepare for a very difficult international period of October.
Mourinho’s probable reasoning for both answers is absolutely fair. He would want his record signing to get more and more minutes and confidence, but at the same time, he would not want to put him under pressure to perform right from the get-go, which could create a negative impact. It remains to be seen what the manager ends up doing on Saturday.
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