A frustrated Jos\u00e9 Mourinho spoke to the media after a 1-0 defeat to Real Betis, the team\u2019s first of the season, showing his anger at both his rival and referee Alejandro Hern\u00e1ndez Hern\u00e1ndez as he explained, \u201clook\u2026 I don\u2019t know why I got the yellow card, but it\u2019s okay, I accept it. I stood up because a Betis player looked like he was out cold right there in front of the bench\u2026 but I don\u2019t know. The penalty situation, the retake, Esp\u00ed\u2019s goal\u2026 I don\u2019t know, I can\u2019t tell you. I saw a lot of frustrated people on the bench who were watching the plays. I didn\u2019t see it. I can\u2019t comment. It seems to me that he let the game flow, which is something I like. In that sense, I always like a referee who lets the game flow. The way the yellow cards were handed out in the first half, the fact that Betis went into halftime without any cards and poor Arda, who only knows how to play soccer, got a yellow\u2026 I didn\u2019t like that. But after losing a game, to say it\u2019s because of a yellow card, no, I won\u2019t do that. I might change my mind after watching the game tomorrow. But today, based on my impressions of the game, I don\u2019t know why we lost. I can\u2019t explain it, because as a team we played very well, very well in every aspect. Individually, too, I have no complaints about any player\u2019s attitude. The guys gave it their all. We deserved to win, but deserving it doesn\u2019t earn you points. Congratulations to Betis, who played to draw and ended up hitting the jackpot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s penalty and Esp\u00ed\u2019s disallowed goal<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t seen it\u2026 I haven\u2019t seen it in detail. I didn\u2019t see it in the locker room. I can\u2019t comment on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on Esp\u00ed deserving more playing time<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the team played a great game. Sometimes you lose and you don\u2019t know why; sometimes you lose and you don\u2019t know how to explain it. We were very dominant, with our center backs in commanding form who controlled absolutely everything, plenty of attacking play, and plenty of scoring chances. If it ends in a tie, we\u2019ll walk away frustrated because we did more, imagine how it would be with a loss. As for Esp\u00ed\u2026 he\u2019s a guy who comes on for 10\u201315 minutes and scores a fantastic goal that later, I don\u2019t know\u2026 maybe it was offside, maybe not\u2026 but he\u2019s an important player for us. We didn\u2019t come away with any points as a result of his work, but he did his job well. He did well. He\u2019s a young man with great potential and will only get better, because he\u2019s humble, hardworking, and eager to learn. I couldn\u2019t be happier with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on what he asked of the substitutes<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team has always played well. Betis had a few counterattacks, which is to be expected. And that\u2019s it, the game belonged to Real Madrid. I haven\u2019t seen the data or statistics\u2026 but I can imagine that we\u2019ve done\u2026 not just possession, because possession often means nothing, but we\u2019ve created a lot of chances. We\u2019ve had, I don\u2019t know, 10, 15, 18 shots on goal. We missed three or four clear chances. The goalkeeper made three or four impressive saves. The substitutions weren\u2019t because I wasn\u2019t happy with the team, but to take off the players who had yellow cards. And for the combination play with Diomande, who plays wide, it\u2019s better to play with Trent, who plays inside, than with Dumfries. And then, the last substitution\u2026 The second-to-last one! Because Carreras came on after that. But the substitution of Valverde for Esp\u00ed\u2026 was to really ramp up the high pressure in these final 10\u201312 minutes against a deep-lying defense, where a target man is needed to free up Kylian for positions between the lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on whether some players can\u2019t be substituted<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to substitute Arda, yes. Very hard. Because he was playing very well. The Betis players are\u2026 in that sense, they\u2019re smarter than the Real Madrid players. The Real Madrid players are pure, naive. The very first play of the game was a clear yellow card for a player who hit Valverde. A minute later, another yellow card for a player who committed a major foul on Vinicius. But the Real Madrid players get back up immediately. The Betis players are smarter\u2026 they\u2019re smarter. And obviously, with the support of a fantastic crowd that\u2019s cheering them on and putting pressure on the opposition\u2026 they manage to pull off these kinds of things. I don\u2019t know how Arda ended the first half with a yellow card, when he\u2019d played so much, so much, so much\u2026 and committed just a minor foul that resulted in a yellow card. But then they were out to get him, obviously. And I had to take him off the field because I had this feeling that he was in a risky situation. And it was difficult to substitute him, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on teaching the team to be less naive<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, maybe I didn\u2019t explain myself well. The team worked incredibly hard. They gave it their all. As for \u201cnaive\u201d\u2026 I mean it in the sense that the Betis players almost tried to influence the referee\u2019s calls and the Real Madrid players\u2019 performance in situations that are clearly yellow-card offenses, for example, a stomp, which is a yellow card\u2026 In the first minute, a stomp on Valverde, and he just stayed on his feet. That\u2019s worthy of a Real Madrid captain, but let me give you an example from the other side: that guy who was lying there motionless in front of my bench, I thought an ambulance was on its way, but in the end, there was no ambulance. That\u2019s what I mean. And when you play against teams with this kind of culture, this kind of mentality, it works against you. But I\u2019m very happy with my players. All of them. All of them. I really liked them as a team, and individually, I have nothing to criticize. And the missed penalty, as I always say, when one of us steps up to take the penalty, we\u2019re all in it together. We\u2019re all in it together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho on injury to Cucurella<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A frustrated Jos\u00e9 Mourinho spoke to the media after a 1-0 defeat to Real Betis, the team\u2019s first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[82,3462],"class_list":["post-80936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-madrid","tag-madrid","tag-real-madrid-cf-coach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80936","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=80936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}