Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho wants his midfielders to be midfielders. He revealed this in a press conference before the Sevilla match on Sunday. He was asked about what he expects his midfielders to do when they're on the pitch, and his answer was very contradictory to what his midfielders actually do when they end up playing.
He said, "I ask midfielders to be midfielders. I ask them to do the job a midfielder does. One who only defends is limited. If they only attack, it is better to play on the wings or as a number 10. It is a very difficult position to play. To be top, you need a different kind of quality.”
Mourinho's words themselves are not wrong at all. In fact, he makes some brilliant points. You cannot expect that the midfielders were limited on the ball, but you also cannot expect them to just provide on-the-ball stuff. That is completely correct because a midfielder's job is to do a bit of everything. It is to pass the ball around well, to also control the game, to go into the box whenever he sees fit, but also to go back and defend to help support defenders.
How does that translate to Real Madrid's current midfield? If you look at the two midfielders that he selects usually, who are Aurelien Tchouameni and Fede Valverde, both of them are not midfielders by Mourinho's definition. Both of them are limited on the ball. They also provide more on one third than they do on the other rwo.
Fede Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni do not work well together
If Valverde can play on the wings and score goals but also defend, but he cannot do the controlling work or the dribbling work that a midfielder is required to do, then he is, by definition, limited. Tchouameni: if he can defend well, but he cannot progress the ball efficiently and be there when the team needs him to be, and be an outlet for players to pass to when they are being pressed, then he is also, by definition, limited.
The last quality, or lack thereof, is shared by both Valverde and Tchouameni. A midfielder's primary job is to be confident with the ball so that their team is able to get out of situations with their support. If your two midfielders do not even do that, then there is a lot wrong with the structure that the manager is trying to have.
If you want them to control the tempo as well as do some passing to keep the ball for as long as possible, then Mourinho has to start a different combination of midfielders. That is not to say, by the way, that both Valverde and Tchouameni have to be benched. You can still start either Arda Guler or Bernardo Silva alongside one of these two players, and things could technically work at least a bit better than those two.
Mourinho wanting to keep fixating on this midfield duo when it is so clearly not working, when it hasn't worked for more than two years, is contradicting his own point about needing more variety and completeness in the field.
Mourinho did start Guler over Valverde in the midfield, as he put the Uruguayan midfielder at right-back against Sevilla. That is a bit of an improvement, but if it does not do it consistently, then it does not really matter.
The truth is, Real Madrid need one solid, complete midfielder who is able to keep the ball and is not afraid of it. If the two that can consistently start for Real Madrid aren't that profile, then one of them needs to be dropped, and this is not a matter of discussion anymore because of the amount of bad performances Real Madrid fans have seen.
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