Four days before Real Madrid open LaLiga, José Mourinho’s back four is finally starting to read. And the headline is not who is in it — it is who is not. Dean Huijsen has won the argument in the middle of the Real Madrid defence, and Antonio Rüdiger looks set to start the season on the bench.
According to Bernabéu Digital, citing journalist Guillermo Rai, Mourinho’s plan for the start of the campaign is a centre-back pairing of Huijsen and Ibrahima Konaté. The report says the coaching staff have been impressed by the Spaniard across the friendlies, to the point that he has nailed down the left-sided berth, with the Frenchman alongside him for the league debut.
Why Dean Huijsen has won the left-sided spot
This is not a surprise so much as a confirmation. Huijsen has been the constant in a defence that has spent the summer being reshuffled, and the final pre-season test at Schalke was another chance to make the point. He arrived with the profile Mourinho tends to build around: left-footed, comfortable defending a high line, calm enough to play out of trouble under pressure.
It also fits with the wider read of the XI. Diario AS, via Madrid Universal, have Mourinho settling on a 4-2-3-1 base and name Huijsen as his starting defender, even while calling central defence one of the positions still genuinely open. When we wrote about the meaning behind his Real Madrid No.4, it read like a statement of intent from the club. It is now reading like a starting shirt.
Konaté’s inclusion is the newer detail. He arrived this summer on a four-year contract and, on Bernabéu Digital’s reading, has done enough in pre-season to be trusted from matchday one rather than eased in.
What it means for Rüdiger and Militão
Bernabéu Digital’s line on Rüdiger is careful, and worth repeating carefully: the German would have lost his place in the first-choice XI, but the outlet stresses he will still be important across the season. Nobody at Valdebebas is writing off a defender of his experience four days before a league opener.
Éder Militão is the bigger variable. The same report places him in the final phase of his recovery and describes him as Real Madrid’s best centre-back, adding that Mourinho’s plans could change once he is available. Anyone who followed the specialist route he took to save his season will know how long that road has been. Madrid also went into this month down to three fit senior centre-backs, which makes a settled pairing feel like a luxury rather than a given.
The outlet expects heavy rotation regardless — a week-by-week call rather than a fixed pair — which is the sensible way to read any pre-season pecking order, Mourinho’s included.
The rest of the back four is still an argument
Further out, AS’s read leaves more open. Marc Cucurella is expected to become the first-choice left-back once he is fully integrated, while the right side has been alternating between Trent Alexander-Arnold and Denzel Dumfries: playmaking quality against physicality and thrust. We have already covered how Dumfries jumped Trent in the pecking order, and that one still does not look settled.
In front of them, Mourinho has options returning. Aurélien Tchouaméni is back in group training after muscle discomfort and should be available for the trip to Espanyol, though Madrid Universal report Federico Valverde and Bernardo Silva remain favourites for the double pivot given their pre-season sharpness.
Real Madrid kick off at the RCDE Stadium on Saturday 22 August at 21:30 Spanish time, 20:30 in the UK, live in Spain on Orange TV and DAZN, according to Bernabéu Digital. If the reports are right, the first Madrid team sheet of the Mourinho era will have Huijsen’s name on it and Rüdiger’s on the bench. That is a bold way to start a season — which, on past evidence, is rather the point.
