{"id":75040,"date":"2026-08-24T12:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/75040\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T12:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T12:45:51","slug":"mourinho-back-to-his-old-tricks-with-real-madrid-dark-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/75040\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourinho back to his old tricks with Real Madrid dark arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you really think Jose Mourinho<\/a> was going to sit calmly all the way through game one of his second Real Madrid<\/a> spell? Of course you didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t taken long at all for Real Madrid\u2019s returning boss to bring the antics back. Just one match, in fact. The subject of his ire this time: Denzel Dumfries.<\/p>\n

During Real Madrid\u2019s La Liga opener against Espanyol \u2013 which went on to finish 2-1 in Mourinho\u2019s side\u2019s favour thanks to a late Carlos Espi winner \u2013 Dumfries was dawdling over a throw in. You can\u2019t get away with that these days, after new anti-timewasting rules were brought in ahead of the new season. And Mourinho wasn\u2019t taking any chances.<\/p>\n

Sensing that Dumfries had been taking just a little bit too long, Mourinho got out of his seat and raced towards the right-back, yelling at him to get the ball back in play.<\/p>\n

Dumfries obliged and chucked the ball into the middle of the park. Panic over.<\/p>\n

Jose Mourinho running in from the dugout to remind Denzel Dumfries about the 5-second rule on throw-ins.<\/a>
by
u\/OptimusCloyster<\/a> in
soccer<\/a><\/p>\n

Had Dumfries not taken the throw-in in time \u2013 within five seconds, precisely \u2013 then because of the new laws, it would have been overturned and given to Espanyol.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a risk that Mourinho was willing to see his player make.<\/p>\n

You often hear of players losing a yard of pace in the later years of their career. You\u2019d assume their managers would be even slower, but here was Mourinho at 63, looking sharp off the mark as he leapt out of the dugout to chase down his intended target.\u00a0No messing about whatsoever.<\/p>\n

If his attackers can reproduce that kind of acceleration on the pitch, Madrid should be a dangerous side.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re under no illusion that Mourinho and his contemporaries will find new ways to game the system and run down the clock. He knows a thing or two about timewasting and isn\u2019t going to stop his whatever-it-takes mentality now.<\/p>\n

But if he is to protect his reputation as the master of the dark arts, he knows he\u2019ll have to ensure such tactics remain subtle. In the face of new rules, he has to adapt.<\/p>\n

There would have been a blatant punishment for what Dumfries was at risk of doing. It\u2019s just not a tightrope that teams can walk down anymore.<\/p>\n

And so we have our first moment to register on the Mourinho entertainment-o-meter this season. There will be bigger and better readings, but it\u2019s a solid start.<\/p>\n

What have you got next for us, Jose?<\/p>\n

By Samuel Bannister<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Six Rodri alternatives for Jose Mourinho\u2019s Real Madrid midfield: Zubimendi, TAA\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every club Jose Mourinho has ever managed?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you really think Jose Mourinho was going to sit calmly all the way through game one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4297,301,4966,82,4298,83],"class_list":["post-75040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-la-liga","tag-latest","tag-madrid","tag-popular","tag-real-madrid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75040","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=75040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}