Federico Valverde has been asked to play almost everywhere for Real Madrid, and has said yes every time. On Tuesday, in his second press conference of the season, José Mourinho gave him the least ambiguous answer he has had in years.
Speaking before Wednesday’s home game with Real Sociedad and reported live by Bernabéu Digital, Mourinho worked through three selection questions: where Valverde plays, what Carlos Espí was doing on his debut, and how you fit several elite attackers into one team.
Jose Mourinho On Valverde: “For Me He Is A Central Midfielder”
The question was about the right wing and the number-10 role, both of which Valverde has filled at various points. Mourinho did not hedge.
“I don’t like it, but I know that out of necessity other coaches have made him play on the right wing or as a number 10,” he said. “For me he is a central midfielder. Depending on the opponent he will be a more positional or a more mobile player, but midfielders are not the only ones who create in the game.”
He then went further. “Every team builds with three or four players, with full-backs and other midfielders. A full-back today can be a player like Trent, who plays inside and has a very important build-up pass. That’s why I don’t want to identify Tchouaméni as a six or Fede as an eight — things blur during the match.”
That is a manager describing a system rather than a formation, and it settles the doubt over Valverde’s position raised earlier this month. The label is gone. The job description is not.
Why Carlos Espi Started Where He Did
The second answer was pure coaching detail: why Carlos Espí was told to pin the two centre-backs and free Kylian Mbappé.
“Endrick has a different attacking profile to Carlos Espí,” he said. “With Espanyol sitting deep and not coming out, we had to drop, take the ball and let Kylian eliminate a few players so that Carlos could occupy defenders — and Trent’s passing improves a lot with a giant like Carlos in that position.”
A small thing that tells you a lot: the opening win was scrappy in places, and the manager’s reading is that the shape was a deliberate answer to a low block, not an accident.
The Attack Question, And The Culture Behind It
The third question — the hardest part of fitting his best attackers together — got the most Mourinho answer of the day.
“The hardest thing is when you don’t have top-level players, or when a suspension leaves you without players who keep the standard up,” he said. “I’ve had those problems in previous years, and I’m not going to have that problem here. If I answer you, I’d be telling you something I don’t want my opponents to know, at least until after the match or until they’ve lost. If you ask me, I want all three of them. I’m here to help before the game, with work and with my decisions, to make them fit.”
The refusal to name his side is familiar. The rest lines up with what Diario AS, via Madrid Universal, report he is trying to build: on the pitch, mastering attacking transitions, an objective he knows will take time; off it, intensity, competitiveness and an internal culture of discipline, order and solidarity in which the team comes before the individual. AS say his message while that work goes on is blunt — Real Madrid have to win at all costs. There is no adaptation period here, and he has known it since his first weeks back at Valdebebas.
Florentino Pérez, AS note, hired him precisely because a serial winner commands respect in a dressing room that changed manager twice inside a single season. None of it arrives quickly — Madrid Universal’s read is that the shift will take months and may create friction. But after a trophyless 2025-26, the club’s first empty season since 2020-21, nobody at the Bernabéu is arguing with the diagnosis.
The next data point is Wednesday, when Real Sociedad visit the Santiago Bernabéu. He has told us where Valverde plays. The rest, as ever, he would rather we found out at kick-off.
