Defense, José Mourinho’s priority?

The upcoming arrival of José Mourinho on the Real Madrid bench is an opportunity to establish the main axes to relaunch the Real Madrid defense. Among them, one clearly stands out: the defensive sector. A true keystone of Real Madrid’s latest successes (Ferland Mendy, Éder Militão, David Alaba, Nacho, Antonio Rüdiger, Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vázquez) some have already left, others awaiting departure, or on uncertain waivers to stay.

The arrivals of à lvaro Carreras, Dean Huijsen, Trent Alexander-Arnold, as well as the move upmarket of Raúl Asencio, seemed to have initiated a transition in the defensive sector, but this was not the case. Between old age, questionable level of play and repeated injuries, the rear guard is the subject of a leak with several breaches which need to be sealed as a priority.

Real Madrid looking for their defense and consistency captain

Real Madrid suffers from a lack of leaders at all levels, a figure with regular experience in his performances and who has the right attitude. This is all the more true for the defensive sector, like à lvaro Carreras and Raúl Asencio who symbolize the overall decadence of the White House. Since the late 1980s, Real Madrid have tended to have a captain who plays in the defensive sector (goalkeeper, defender or defensive midfielder) with the exception of Karim Benzema, Luka Modrić and Raúl. The need to find a leader has never been more relevant when we think about the club’s captains since José Antonio Camacho.

The challenge here for the new Real Madrid coach and his board is therefore to thoroughly renew his defense, with varied profilesranging from the commander of a defense to the versatile complement, including experienced profiles capable of withstanding the constant pressure specific to the White House. The names that Real Madrid should sign are not the most important, here it is crucial to have a conscientiously constructed sectorin order to avoid breakdowns like Valverde right side, Camavinga left side or Tchouaméni central defender.

Favoring players whose specialty it is, whose natural function is essential, in order to have clear ideas tactically. It’s no surprise that some players don’t want to play certain positions that aren’t theirs. Even if it were temporary, which we would just have to accept to help the club, a midfielder is not a defender and vice versa.

Choose players who, not “can play x position“but rather”play x position“has two advantages : the frustration is less (therefore potentially the beginning of social peace in the locker room), and the players are empowered in the face of their competition in the positions in which they play. In a normal world, Real Madrid has much better to offer as an alternative to Trent Alexander-Arnold an aging captain (Carvajal), a central defender (Raúl Asencio), a relay player (Federico Valverde), and if we go back to the 2024-2025 season an aging training winger (Lucas Vázquez)

The recurring injuries, the medical staff and the loss of voice in the locker room

This is the downside of Madrid’s rear guard: the players are too physically fragile. If the responsibility of the medical staff must be highlighted, the fragility of the current players remains a fundamental problem. The expected leaders (David Alaba, Éder Militão, Antonio Rüdiger, Dani Carvajal, Ferland Mendy) are injured too regularly to string together matches, in-extenso establishing their authority in the locker room, despite their ideal profiles to be reliable relays for any coach. A significant loss of voice which greatly contributes to this impression that the locker room has been in freewheeling for 2 years now.

Here is the list of matches missed this year due to injury: Éder Militão missed 26 matches, David Alaba missed 15, Ferland Mendy was excused from 31 matches, Dani Carvajal was absent in 18 matches, and Antonio Rüdiger had to withdraw 21 times this season.

The mistake that the medical staff supposedly made with Kylian Mbappé’s knee a mis un coup à la crédibilité du staff médical. Worse still, it shed light on the treatment of other players, to the point of questioning the recurrence of injuries to our defenders in correlation with the diagnoses (and hasty returns) of injured players. The choice of José Mourinho’s staff therefore proves to be as crucial as that of the profiles he will identify to get Real Madrid back on track.