José Mourinho does not want a Real Madrid squad with substitutes in it. According to Bernabéu Digital, the Portuguese coach intends to build his group around what Spanish football calls the ‘unidad B’ — a second eleven good enough to change almost the entire team without dropping the competitive level. The comparison the report reaches for is the one every Madridista will recognise instantly: Zinedine Zidane’s side of 2017, the one that won La Duodécima with two teams inside one squad.
It matters now because the season starts this weekend and because the Mourinho squad is about to get deeper rather than thinner. Madrid open at Espanyol on Saturday with players still working their way back to fitness, and the same outlet reports that the coach is counting on those returns as fresh ammunition for internal competition rather than as inconveniences to be managed.
The B unit inside Mourinho’s Real Madrid squad
The idea, as described, goes beyond having a decent bench. Mourinho wants different profiles for different opponents, the ability to spread the load across a punishing calendar, and above all footballers who do not start matches yet turn them — players whose form forces the nominal first-choice eleven to keep their standards up or lose their place.
Bernabéu Digital single out Ferland Mendy, Rodrygo and Éder Militão as figures who take on particular importance in that scenario. Each has had physical problems; each, on the report’s account, would be welcomed back as a new resource rather than slotted quietly into a queue. Nobody, is the message, gets to treat a starting place as secured. It is not a coincidence that the same principle has already produced visible movement — Antonio Rüdiger losing his place in the centre of defence being the clearest example.
Where Militão fits in Mourinho’s squad plan
Militão is the interesting one, and a second Bernabéu Digital report frames him as Mourinho’s hidden card — the man in the treatment room who could reorder the entire defensive hierarchy once he is available. The Brazilian is still working on his recovery. The coach, per the report, has enormous confidence in him and expects him to become a fundamental piece again, but there is no intention of rushing his return; he will need time to rediscover competitive rhythm.
What earns him that trust is profile as much as history. His pace, physical power and ability to defend large spaces fit several of the shapes Mourinho can set up — which, in a defence currently being built around Dean Huijsen and Ibrahima Konaté, with Rüdiger and the academy pair Mario Rivas and Joan Martínez behind them, is exactly the kind of variable a coach wants to hold in reserve. Bernabéu Digital are explicit that Mourinho does not see him as simply another body returning from injury, but as a centre-back capable of being decisive again.
The flip side is that competition this fierce has a cost, and it is being paid at the other end of the depth chart. Raúl Asencio’s future has become the club’s most pressing piece of business, with Jorge Mendes now working to find him an exit before the window closes on 31 August. A squad without substitutes only works if everyone in it believes they can play.
Why 2017 is a high bar
It is worth keeping the comparison honest. Zidane’s rotation worked because his B unit contained footballers of enormous quality and, crucially, because it delivered results in LaLiga and Europe at the same time. Mourinho is attempting something similar with a group that went into the final week of pre-season short of fit centre-backs and after two seasons without a major trophy. Rotation is a luxury built on availability, and availability is precisely what Madrid have lacked.
Still, the intent tells you something about the season ahead. A manager who wants no substitutes is a manager planning to compete on every front, and telling every player in the building that nothing is settled. Madrid find out how much of it is real at Espanyol on Saturday — and the men watching from the treatment room may end up shaping this side more than the eleven who start it.
