Mourinho Confident in Real Madrid Squad Despite Rodri Loss
José Mourinho insists his Real Madrid squad is “closed” and good enough, even without Rodri – the midfielder who slipped through their fingers and into Barcelona’s hands.
The Portuguese coach, back in charge at the Bernabéu and already deep into his familiar game of control and confrontation, made it clear he will not be banging on the boardroom door in the final days of the window.
“I am very happy with the players I have,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “In my head the squad is closed, and I have not asked for anyone.”
Rodri slips away, midfield questions remain
Madrid spent aggressively this summer. Six new faces walked through the door, headlined by record signing Yan Diomande, the arrival of Bernardo Silva from Manchester City and the capture of Marc Cucurella.
But the one that got away stings a little more because of where he went. Madrid pushed for Rodri, only to see negotiations collapse and the midfielder end up at Barcelona, strengthening their great rivals in precisely the area where Madrid look most fragile.
Beyond Silva, no fresh blood has arrived in the middle of the pitch. That matters. Toni Kroos is gone in 2024, Luka Modric will follow in 2025, and with those departures Madrid have lost the metronomes that once dictated the rhythm of almost every game they played. Control has become a problem, not a given.
Mourinho, though, is not blinking.
“For me the squad is closed, but the market is still open – you never know if a player will come and say ‘I’ve been benched twice and I want to leave,’” he said. “In theory, no [more deals]… but something could always happen.”
Late drama, early signs
On Saturday, his new Madrid edged out Espanyol 2–1 with a late winner in their La Liga opener. It was hardly vintage dominance, but it was a win that carried the stamp of a Mourinho side: tense, tight, decided in the details.
Silva started in midfield alongside Federico Valverde, an early glimpse of the coach’s plan to rebuild the centre without Kroos and Modric. It was functional rather than fluid, but the Portuguese clearly sees the Uruguayan as central to the next phase.
“For me he is a player for the centre of the pitch,” Mourinho said of Valverde, who has previously been shunted to right-back and right wing by other coaches. “Depending on the opponent and our objectives, he might be more set in his position or more mobile.”
Tchouameni held back
One key piece is missing for now. Aurelien Tchouameni will not feature against Real Sociedad on Wednesday, with Mourinho refusing to risk the French midfielder at less than full fitness.
“He’s got a problem, the holiday time wasn’t enough [for him to recover], seeing the games approaching, the player wanted to try … but we’ve decided that you can’t start a season in suffering,” the coach explained.
“You can finish a season suffering, the last couple of months, but you can’t start in August not at 100 percent. So we decided with him, the staff, the medical department, to get him to return at 100 percent.”
It is a classic Mourinho call: protect the structure, keep the player out of trouble, avoid early-season chaos.
Positions blur in Mourinho’s Madrid
If the transfer market has left Madrid one midfielder short on paper, Mourinho is not interested in rigid labels or tidy graphics.
He rejected the idea of pinning fixed numbers to his players in the middle of the park.
“I don’t want to identify Tchouameni as the No. 6, Camavinga No. 6, Fede No. 8, Bernardo No. 10 … things dilute during games.”
In other words, forget the textbook. In this Madrid, roles will slide, players will trade zones, and the midfield will be built on versatility rather than a classic specialist in every slot.
Rodri belongs to Barcelona now. Mourinho’s answer is to double down on what he has, bend his system around Silva, Valverde, Tchouameni and Camavinga, and trust that his reshaped core can carry a new era.
The market clock is still ticking, but Mourinho has drawn his line. Now the question is whether this “closed” squad can open up La Liga and Europe the way he believes it can.
