Arda Güler and Carlos Espí push for starts in Mourinho thriller at Elche | OneFootball

There are days when you really don’t feel like writing about football, but needs must. Even if we don’t put the shirt on, in this little corner we’re caballas. But I’m not going to waste another second talking about that, because then some people start whining when they get called out. Real Madrid won in Elche (2-3) after a good spell driven by an Arda Güler who gives brains and quality to Madrid’s play, but they vanished as soon as he was substituted. Saint Carlos Espí had to rise again, just like in Cornellá, to seal in the Sergio Ramos Zone the Madrid win in the Martínez Valero thriller. What agony!

Madrid still look like a diesel team from the 1980s, one that starts spewing smoke everywhere the moment it hits an uphill stretch, no matter how much Mourinho sells in press conferences the virtues of a high press where two players, two shirtless street fighters, make a couple of token efforts for appearances’ sake and then go right back to the bad habits of the last two seasons. Mbappé has an excuse: he is still unmatched in world football at creating chances all by himself, regardless of whether his finishing is better or worse depending on the run he’s on: in the second half he was nowhere to be seen. One goal allowed and one disallowed at the Martínez Valero. Vinicius, however, is starting to cry out to heaven.

It’s been too many months now, almost two years, in which his level has collapsed. This season he came back from the holidays with obvious extra weight but also with the club’s and the manager’s overprotection. No matter how much they shield him, a player earning 30 million euros a season has to be asked for more. Right now he looks like a filly who deserves a spell on the bench. Mourinho didn’t even wait until the eighty-something minute to take him off anymore; he did it before the 70th.

At least Real Madrid got the good news of Tchouameni returning to the starting lineup. The Frenchman is what he is, and among the things he is, his ID says “profession: holding midfielder”. So the team is a little more compact in defense and a bit more orderly in attack. That’s no small thing. Yan Diomandé also showed a few interesting flashes, and put in commendable work defensively too, although shyness still seems to weigh on him and perhaps he takes on defenders too little for what people expect.

Mourinho has a lot to improve. As against Betis, as against Espanyol, he lost control of the ball against Elche and Madrid are soft as sugar. His management of the bench we’ll rate as so-so, to be kind. Abel Osorio, Elche’s striker, at times moved around as if he owned the place, at moments he looked like a demon, and Madrid seemed incapable of stopping the flood of crosses from the Elche wide men, against which Konaté and Huijsen looked like cotton candy.

Fer Niño’s goal wiped out Madrid’s two-goal lead and it all turned into a choking fit. Madrid had disappeared in the second half and Mourinho had to place his faith in Carlos Espí, the number nine this team is crying out for. The kid did not miss: just like against Espanyol, almost like against Betis (ruled out for an earlier offside by the thickness of a sausage skin). He warned them with a first effort and buried the second. Carlos Espí has a gift. His teammates looked like cotton wool.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.