REAL MADRID, Mourinho: "We have a squad of 23 players and they all are important"

© foto di Alberto Fornasari

José Mourinho made a media appearance after the victory against Granada. The Real Madrid coach analysed situation with the squad for the season 2012/13: "We have a squad of of 20 outfield players and three goalkeepers. Nacho will be part of the first team. Morata, Jesús and Nacho can play with Castilla, but they are first team players. They all give us solutions, they all give us options they are all are important to the team because we have a reduced squad".

The coach of the Spanish Super Cup champions offered his assessment of the how the match went: "I did not like the way the team was playing, we had little ambition and not very much pace or intensity. A week is a very short space of time to achieve something in if you compare it with other areas in society and we have to make good use of our time. It is not enough to just win, we have to play better than we did."

The´ 'Whites’ coach wants to see the same level of commitment offered by the team in the match against Barcelona in every match: "I've seen a team that played to their limits against Barcelona from the first minute but in the league they have not done so. It is difficult to explain why. These are things that I have to figure out and work on. The team’s ambition and motivation are not as high as they could be and last season we wanted score more goals and kill the game off as early as possible. If we scored a goal we wanted to go and get the second. I cannot say that any one player had a bad game or showed a bad attitude, because it is not true, but I want more. The team has to work harder and have more intensity, that’s why I am not happy."

Mourinho spoke about Modric, who played his first game as a starter: "I am happy. He is not in a physical state to be able to play in other positions, so he takes a little more time to recover and does not work too hard in defence. He played for 45 or 60
minutes which was good for him. Now he will be the national team and it will be good if he keeps playing. Hopefully we’ll be lucky and he will get lots of pitch time because he has had a long time without playing, but gave a good performance against Barcelona and it was hard to play today his best when his team didn’t play very well."

He also had a few words to say about the Whites latest signing, Essien: "He has come on loan, he did know what he was going to get out of it, he came a bit in the dark, with the hope of helping out, to be useful and to try for Real Madrid to be able to keep him on at the end of the season. To me it is a fantastic move for the club." Another name that was mentioned in the press conference was Kaká: "Neither he nor anyone else is a dead-weight. Today we went in another direction, Benzema, Callejón, Modric played and we also wanted to give some stability to those that played against Barca. The three who were left out were the first choices, but a time will when Kaká will be an option."

Mourinho commended the changes to the squad made on the transfer market: "I have to reiterate the opinion I have about this president, the CEO and the board. This transfer period has been an example to society, demonstrating respect for the economic and social state of Europe, spending less than we have earned and doing two fantastic deals with Lass and Granero. They were in the final year of their contracts and in January they could have negotiated with another club. They could have turned down renewal deals and could left on a free transfer. We had the intelligence and acumen to make the most out of two players who have not wanted to renew."

Finally, when asked about the performance of the opposition Mourinho praised Granada and Anquela: "They are a team with a good coach and they are well organised, they are at the top level of football. Their team can play well or badly, with more or less talent, but always they are organised and know what to do on the field. They knew they had to play a more defensive match. Pepe and Marcelo played pretty well and they kept away from the goal. When we scored the second goal it became harder for them, but I think they are will do stay up in the end."