{"id":68301,"date":"2026-08-09T15:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/68301\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T15:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T15:13:15","slug":"in-much-worse-shape-jose-mourinho-criticises-real-madrids-new-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/68301\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIn much worse shape\u201d: Jose Mourinho criticises Real Madrid\u2019s new signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"article-teaser\">As Jose Mourinho\u2019s supposed preferred signing, Bernardo Silva joined Real Madrid in the current transfer window. But &#8220;The Special One&#8221; is not yet entirely satisfied with the Portuguese player.<\/p>\n<p>After the Madrilenians&#8217; 2-1 win in their second friendly against Hungarian top club Ferencvaros Budapest, Mourinho admitted he is still far from satisfied with Silva&#8217;s physical condition.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is one of those for whom it does them psychological good to do absolutely nothing on holiday, and he came into pre-season in significantly worse physical condition. He has to improve there,&#8221; said the Real coach on the club&#8217;s own TV channel.<\/p>\n<p>Silva replaced Brahim Diaz at half-time against Ferencvaros. By then, Los Blancos were already ahead through a goal from youngster Mario Rivas, before Carlos Espi made it 2-0 in the 49th minute. Budapest&#8217;s goal came from Kenan Kodro.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Mourinho also had praise for Silva. &#8220;The 31-year-old is a great player who helps us in build-up play when he plays deeper, for example as a number six or number eight,&#8221; Mourinho enthused. &#8220;During the game I noticed that he was lacking a bit of physical strength, and I moved him forward into the number 10 role. He can play there as well. He can be used in three or four positions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"fco-image__image\" alt=\"Bernardo Silva ManCity\"   loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"auto\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2266058697 (1).jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1600 \/ 900;width:100%;height:100%\"\/>Getty ImagesBernardo Silva leaves Manchester City after nine years<\/p>\n<p>Silva, regarded as one of Mourinho&#8217;s absolute priority signings, only joined the Madrilenians this summer after his contract at Manchester City expired following nine years and more than 300 competitive appearances. He signed a contract with Real until 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Against Ferencvaros, Los Blancos claimed their first pre-season friendly win. At the start of August, they had drawn 2-2 with Fiorentina. Next Wednesday (12.08.) they face Deportivo A Coruna in another friendly, before travelling to FC Schalke 04 for a friendly next Sunday (16.08.).<\/p>\n<p>The Madrilenians then start their competitive campaign on 22 August with an away game at Espanyol Barcelona.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Jose Mourinho\u2019s supposed preferred signing, Bernardo Silva joined Real Madrid in the current transfer window. But &#8220;The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26176,1414,85,82,83],"class_list":["post-68301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-b-silva","tag-j-mourinho","tag-laliga","tag-madrid","tag-real-madrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}