Mourinho’s Real Madrid return centres on taming star power and restoring team balance

Jose Mourinho faces the biggest challenge of his second spell at Real Madrid as he attempts to manage a dressing room packed with outstanding individual talent and competing egos.

The Portuguese manager must solve a problem that Carlo Ancelotti, at least in his final year, as well as Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa, were unable to address during the recent period. The issue extends beyond what happens on the pitch, but it has had a clear impact on Real Madrid’s performances and contributed to the club moving away from major trophies an unacceptable situation at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Former Real Madrid players Alvaro Benito and Rafa Alkorta identified the management of pride and ego as Mourinho’s central task during appearances on the Spanish radio programme El Larguero, broadcast by Cadena SER.

Benito said Mourinho was at the peak of his coaching career when he first arrived at Real Madrid, unlike his current position, but insisted that the 63-year-old still understood the club’s problems better than anyone.

“He is a coach with great abilities, and he knows better than anyone what the team’s problem has been in recent years in terms of defensive and attacking organisation,” Benito said.

He added that the starting XI was “very competitive, name by name”, but said Mourinho’s responsibility would be to make all of the club’s leading players understand each other and work together on the field.

Benito believes tactical discipline and commitment are essential if Real Madrid are to avoid another collapse.

“The team is equipped to win everything, but to achieve that they will have to fulfil the commitments Mourinho will demand from them,” he said.

He added that those demands, together with defensive effort and physical work, would be the key to “avoiding falling into the same trap again”.

“On this path, it is very difficult to succeed in beating very good teams,” Benito said.

Alkorta argued that Mourinho’s success would depend on his ability to manage the squad, rather than simply drawing up a tactical plan.

“Beyond the tactical approach, the key lies in management to change the direction of a team that for two years has relied more on individual brilliance than on being a complete unit,” he said.

Alkorta described “reconciling this ego and this pride” as “the most difficult thing”, adding that none of the previous managers had managed to achieve it.

Despite that, he expressed confidence in Mourinho.

“He is the only one capable of making them understand that solidarity is not a trivial matter, but an essential element for winning league and cup titles,” Alkorta said.

Benito warned that the make-up of the current squad created an exceptionally difficult challenge for Mourinho. He pointed to Jude Bellingham, Ousmane Diomande, Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior as four forwards who could not realistically be left out.

“With Bellingham, Diomande, Mbappe and Vini, you have four untouchable forwards. In principle, it is a team that is vulnerable to breaking apart. Who provides the balance? It has to be everyone,” Benito said.

He cited Paris Saint-Germain as an example of how collective effort can overcome a squad full of individual talent.

“They have broken all the myths in football, because they play with Vitinha, Joao Neves and Fabian, with two very attacking full-backs, and the team does not break because everyone presses and everyone works,” he said.

Real Madrid’s dressing room had been completely harmonious before Mbappe moved to the Santiago Bernabeu. The atmosphere has changed during the past two seasons, particularly because of an unspoken power struggle with Vinicius Junior one that is apparent to outside observers.

The rivalry between the two forwards covers several areas. Mbappe gave up the left-wing position to Vinicius and moved into a central striking role, but the more significant question concerns who should be regarded as Real Madrid’s leading figure.

Before Mbappe’s arrival, Vinicius was the club’s principal long-term investment and Real Madrid were building the team around him. Mbappe, however, has taken much of the spotlight during his two seasons at the club through his prolific goalscoring, leaving the Brazilian less central to the public narrative.

Vinicius sought to restore the balance during contract negotiations with Real Madrid. He reportedly demanded the same salary as Mbappe to agree to remain at the Bernabeu, as well as a renewal bonus similar to the payment the Frenchman received when he joined from Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer.

The tension between the two players also extends to penalty-taking, which can increase a player’s goal tally and potentially influence Ballon d’Or calculations if Real Madrid win the UEFA Champions League in a given season.

Both Mbappe and Vinicius have also been criticised for failing to contribute consistently to defensive duties, including pressing and tracking back after Real Madrid lose possession. That shared weakness can harm the team’s balance, particularly in major matches.

The rise of the ego problem at Real Madrid is difficult to separate from the absence of strong leadership in the dressing room. It would have been hard to imagine the club falling into such a damaging trap when Sergio Ramos, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Nacho Fernandez were all at the Bernabeu.

Real Madrid have now lost all of those figures, with Dani Carvajal also added to the list. Thibaut Courtois is the only remaining member of the old guard who can be relied upon to help create calm inside the dressing room.

There is also an ironic complication involving captain Federico Valverde. He was involved with Aurelien Tchouameni in the team’s biggest dressing-room altercation of last season and has previously crossed disciplinary boundaries with team-mates and opponents, including his well-known confrontation with Alex Baena.

Among Real Madrid’s more recent arrivals, only Bernardo Silva can be regarded as an experienced figure capable of helping to create calm within the dressing room.