After Real Madrid's 2-2 draw with Fiorentina in a friendly, Mourinho said he was satisfied with the team's performance in their first preseason game.
In an interview with Real Madrid's official television channel, Mourinho analyzed Real Madrid's first preseason friendly: "I like everything. What I saw on the phone was 'a Madrid with two faces.' But today's Madrid had three faces: fresh, tired, and super tired. The fresh team played very well, and a 2-1 lead at halftime was far from enough. The first half was of high quality, and we could have easily taken a 3-0 or 4-0 lead. In the second half, the game became more physical, and the opponents were a typical Italian team, very physically strong. They put some pressure on us, and the second face started to show at the beginning of the second half."
“After that, we saw Moise Kean facing two 18-year-olds in the penalty area. The two youngsters played very well and are developing, but physically they are not yet ready to deal with a player as good as Moise Kean. The third face – which I also really like – was the face of someone who was extremely tired, but the team knew how to play as a whole, control the game, and regain the initiative.”
"This is our Real Madrid team. Before the match, I told the players that Real Madrid is Real Madrid. Whether it's a friendly or a training match, it's Real Madrid. We must strive for improvement and also deliver results to continue our history. I could only field the players I had available. I had to put Dumfries and Trent (Alexander-Arnold) together and try to find a rhythm that suits this style of play. For this match, we only did pre-match training yesterday because the goal isn't to arrange training solely around one game. We did some organizational work to let the team know what to do on the pitch. From day one, I'm very satisfied with the players' work."
"Dumfries and Enderic only trained for three days, yet they played for over 70 minutes. That's a remarkable effort, and in my opinion, it shows they're willing to give their all. I love all of this, and I thank Gross for arranging such high-quality training sessions for us. Joan (Martinez) and Mario (Rivas) are both very promising youngsters; they showed great ability as long as the matches weren't too physically demanding. I'm delighted to see the quality of our young players. Today's lineup was a mix of academy players and our seven 'adult players,' two of whom had only trained for three days. Later, we brought in Carlos, who had only trained with us for an hour yesterday, to help the team and let him experience what Real Madrid is like."
"I'm worried about not being able to bring everyone, but I also hoped to have three weeks of training time with the others, which is impossible. Vinicius, Brahim, and Bernardo will return on Monday. Dumfries, Carlos (Espi), and Enderik can train for a few more days. We'll take it one step at a time until the players who participated in the World Cup semi-finals and finals return, and for the finals, only Cucurella is available."
