Mourinho Asencio questions were never going to be dodged, and Jose Mourinho did not try. Speaking on Thursday before Real Madrid's trip to Real Betis, the manager delivered a carefully split verdict on Raul Asencio: total backing for the professional inside Valdebebas, and open displeasure at the version of him outside it.
"I'm not happy," Mourinho said. "But never mind, we all make mistakes. But when they pile up, it's a different matter."
The Mourinho Asencio verdict: two players, one man
The context is a defender convicted of drink-driving and currently sidelined with a muscular problem. Mourinho separated the training-ground Asencio from the headline Asencio.
"I spoke to him when I arrived. I did so because of things that had happened in the past," he explained, in quotes carried by Madrid Universal. "Since I arrived, I haven't spoken to him any more. I no longer discuss matters outside Valdebebas. Because inside, he's a true professional.
"When he was fit, nobody trained harder or better than him. Now that he's injured, he's the first to arrive and the last to leave. Extreme dedication."
Then came the qualifier Madridistas will recognise as pure Mourinho. "But a Real Madrid player is one 24 hours a day. What you do outside can damage your reputation and that of the club."
On the sporting future, he would not be drawn while the club's internal disciplinary process runs its course. "The club has launched an investigation and, as his manager, whilst that investigation is ongoing, I regard him as a Real Madrid player. He will remain so for a few more weeks." Marca also report a separate court case involving the defender remains pending.
"It has to be a great Real Madrid"
The football, meanwhile, is going rather well — which is why Mourinho used his platform to lower the temperature rather than raise it. Los Blancos have taken nine points from nine and travel to Seville on Friday night (21:00 CEST) for matchday four.
"It has to be a great Real Madrid," he told the room, in quotes reported by Marca. "Betis are a very good side. To win, you have to be at your maximum level." He added: "It's difficult to win there. And to do so, you have to be at your very best. There's no other way."
He is not wrong to be wary. Marca note Manuel Pellegrini's side kept two clean sheets in their opening two rounds before shipping a 5-2 defeat at Levante. A wounded Betis at home is its own kind of problem. Madrid arrive off a 4-0 win over Malaga, but with a treatment room that has not emptied.
La Fabrica, Sergio Martinez and the rest of the room
Mourinho also used the presser to make a promise to the academy. "Many work with me regularly, every day. Others come sometimes. We pay a lot of attention to them," he said, pointing to Thiago Pitarch's promotion and the money the club has banked on academy sales — while insisting those exits are not really exits, because Madrid can bring those players back. With suspensions and injuries, he added, "opportunities will come for them".
One of the newer faces travels. On summer arrival Sergio Martinez: "He has trained with the first team for two days. He has potential and a little experience in the top flight. He has to work, because the level of quality and intensity here is different. He'll be there tomorrow, along with Rivas and Cestero — whether he plays or not, it's a step."
Asked about Lionel Messi's international retirement, Mourinho went misty. "Talking about Messi is complicated. There are no words. He's one of those players you're going to miss." On Julian Alvarez's situation at Atletico Madrid he declined to intrude — "nobody knows that situation better than Simeone" — before adding a line his own dressing room will have heard clearly: once 1 September passes, an unhappy player had better become happy, or "you don't play until January".
Nine points from nine, a closed squad and a manager drawing lines. Friday night in Seville tells us which matters most.
