Aurelien Tchouameni waited a month to kick a ball this season. He has been repaid with the most valuable thing a squad player can be handed at the Santiago Bernabeu — a manager who has already made his mind up. The Tchouameni Real Madrid question looked genuinely open in August. According to a report from AS, relayed via Bernabeu Digital and carried in English by Madrid Universal, it is not open at all.
The Tchouameni Real Madrid verdict is already in
The Frenchman made his first appearance of the campaign on Tuesday night, coming off the bench in the closing stages of Madrid’s 2-1 Champions League win over Inter Milan after recovering from the muscular problem that wiped out his pre-season and his opening weeks.
Per the report, Jose Mourinho harbours no doubts whatsoever. Tchouameni is regarded as a key player and is expected to start, for a straightforward reason: the Portuguese sees him as a midfielder with no direct replacement in the squad.
That is a specific compliment. Madrid have creators, runners and finishers in midfield. What they lack, in Mourinho’s reading, is a second player who combines positional discipline with that much physical presence in front of the back four. For a side built to defend aggressively and break at speed, the man who holds the shape is not a luxury.
Why the question was being asked at all
Tchouameni ended last season badly. There was the confrontation with Federico Valverde, now the club captain, and there was persistent speculation about his future, none of which was ever resolved with a departure. Then the injury arrived and cost him a proper pre-season under a brand-new coach — close to the worst thing that can happen to a player who needs to convince.
Meanwhile, others moved ahead of him. Bernardo Silva had established himself quickly after arriving on a free from Manchester City. Eduardo Camavinga was fit and sharp. With Madrid visibly hunting for more creativity in the middle third, it was reasonable to wonder whether a defensively-minded 26-year-old was still first choice or simply a useful option. We tracked his recovery through August, and nobody outside Valdebebas knew the answer.
Bernardo Silva is the one who pays
Here is the awkward arithmetic. If Tchouameni starts and Valverde is untouchable as captain, Mourinho’s double pivot is full before the team sheet reaches the creative players.
The most likely casualty is Bernardo Silva, who has spent the early weeks looking like one of the signings of the summer. There are ways around it — the Portuguese can play higher up, and Mourinho has already shown he will reshape the pivot around Valverde depending on the opponent — but in a two-man base, somebody good is sitting down.
Camavinga and Arda Guler complicate it further. Both were unavailable against Inter through suspension, alongside Bernardo Silva, which is precisely why Mourinho was reduced to fielding Trent Alexander-Arnold in an unfamiliar deep role for most of the night. That emergency is over. From the next matchday onwards, Mourinho picks two from five or six, and the complaints start.
What to watch after the break
Nothing here guarantees minutes. Being described as certain in September is not the same as starting a Clasico in October, and Tchouameni has been in and out of Madrid’s strongest XI often enough to know the difference.
What the report does establish is that his standing survived a bad end to last season, a summer of noise and an injury that kept him out of every minute of Mourinho’s first month. Los Blancos go into the international break top of La Liga with a European win banked and a coach who has said openly that he wants absolute control of matches, as Mundo Deportivo reported after the Inter game. The player he reportedly considers irreplaceable is the one who is supposed to give it to him.
The first team sheet after the break will tell us far more than any report can.
Claims in this article are attributed to AS via Bernabeu Digital and Madrid Universal. Real Madrid have not commented publicly on Mourinho’s selection plans.
