Real Madrid winger Yan Diomande has had a very challenging start at the club so far. He has not played nearly as many minutes as he was hoping he would, but because of the process of settling in, Diomande is still learning about life on the job.
After all, he did join the biggest team in sports history, so it is only fair that a transitional period for the player to fall back on was given to him.
Fans are already criticising Diomande because of his lack of minutes and his lack of output over the eight games that they have seen Real Madrid play this season, and it is not entirely on him.
It is a completely new team with a completely new setup, and a completely different environment, which is really challenging for players of his age. However, if you put him in his environment, in his element, Diomande more often than not gives back the results that his team needs.
Yan Diomande has been impressive for Ivory Coast
Against Ghana, Diomande played admirably, dribbling past players at will and creating chances for his teammates. It was brilliant. It was a brilliant performance, and it was hopefully something that the player would gain a lot of confidence from, because it is desperately needed by the Ivory Coast international.
However, the only problem with that, at least for Jose Mourinho, is that he showed the brilliance that he showed on the left wing, which is already occupied by Vinícius Junior at Real Madrid.
At the moment, Mourinho simply does not need another bit of added pressure that will cause headaches for him in the starting XI. He has said that he would want that from his players, but having yet another player be more comfortable on the left would be very challenging for even a manager like Mourinho to manage.
It is less about playing Diomande because of his price tag and more about how well he plays on the left. He also has to consider how poor Vinicius Junior has been this season, which is why starting Diomande over him may seem like something that fans would want from Mourinho. It is also worth noting, though, that it's really difficult for the manager to do that because of other factors at play.
Vinicius Junior is a superstar at this club, and he expects to start nearly every game, and unless Mourinho is going back to his old ways and removing this question of player power for good, this will continue to happen.
These international performances from Diomande are really good to watch, but they will only give Mourinho even more headaches as he tries to build a team that can compete at the highest level. It is not meant as a bad thing, but it depends on more factors than those involving the Ivory Coast international.
From the looks of it, Diomande should at least be given the chance to be part of that team, but it remains to be seen whether it would be on the left side or the right
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