There is a version of this fixture that is simply the second game of a long season, a Wednesday night against a good Basque side, three points and move on. Nobody in Madrid is treating it that way. Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad is the night José Mourinho walks back into the home dugout at the Santiago Bernabéu, and the stadium has been waiting for it since June.
Los Blancos host La Real on Wednesday in their second match of the LaLiga campaign and their first at home. Before that, there is a day of work to get through: Bernabéu Digital reports that the squad train at Valdebebas from 10:00 on Tuesday, after which Mourinho faces the press for only the second time as Real Madrid manager this season.
Mourinho’s Second Press Conference Before Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad
His first, before the trip to Espanyol, set a tone: no promises, a high bar, and a manager who has been noticeably quieter in his second spell than the caricature suggests. Bernabéu Digital expects him to spend Tuesday’s session outlining how he intends to approach the Real Sociedad game, which the outlet frames as one of the first real tests of his new Real Madrid.
The occasion carries its own weight. The Real Champs put the gap at more than 13 years since Mourinho last took charge of a match at the Bernabéu with this club. Whatever else Wednesday produces, the welcome will be worth hearing.
The Centre-Back Call Is The Real Question
Selection-wise, the interesting decision is in the middle of defence. Diario AS, via Madrid Universal, report that Dean Huijsen is the one centre-back with a fixed place while Éder Militão works his way back, and that the second slot is a genuinely open contest between Antonio Rüdiger and Ibrahima Konaté.
Mourinho started Konaté at Espanyol and did not use Rüdiger at all, which reads like a statement until you look at the detail. The Frenchman’s debut numbers were excellent — most touches of any Real Madrid player, 97% passing, eight duels won from eleven — but AS also notes he faded, was poorly positioned for Espanyol’s goal and lost the ball a couple of times through over-confidence. Encouraging rather than settled, in other words. The same source adds that Real Madrid would still consider a further defensive signing before the window shuts, though only if Raúl Asencio is sold first.
Diomandé’s Night, And Who Is Missing
Further forward, Bernabéu Digital argues that Wednesday is the moment for Yan Diomandé to show the version of himself that cost the money. The winger has arrived well and given glimpses, but the fearless one-against-one player from his Leipzig days has not yet appeared with any consistency — explained, the outlet suggests, by fitness and adaptation rather than anything more troubling. The expectation is that he features and starts taking more risks.
One name will not be involved. Endrick misses out with the hamstring problem that has followed him since pre-season, meaning the striker who came back to Madrid to play will watch the Bernabéu’s first night of the season from the stands.
Real Madrid arrive with three points and plenty to prove. The right-back question is live, the centre-back pairing is unresolved and the manager has already said the level has not been reached. Real Madrid vs Real Sociedad will not answer all of it. It will, however, be the first time this group hears what the Bernabéu makes of them — and the first time in a very long while that the man on the touchline hears it as one of their own.
