after jose mourinho’s post match interview where he laughed at arteta saying he’s just getting started after over 6 years and 6 full season there, claiming that the standards at real madrid are just different, you’d expect him to show us exactly why he’s called the “special one”, why his team deserve to be considered one of europe’s best and why they have so many talented players in one starting xi but i find myself baffled as to what direction this team has. from the beginning, real madrid lacked cohesion. stringing together passes aimlessley that just about made their way to mbappe where he’s either offside or missing the chance (which was consistently today, no clue how he didn’t get hooked for espi but we know mou doesn’t makes subs off merit). jude did nothing of note. can almost be forgiven when he’s been the only one working in the last few games. diomande’s goal was good and obviously the winner, and i like that he’s actually applying effort but it did come more centrally/on the right than the left, mildly concerning for a left winger but whatever. the arda rw and tchouameni-valverde midfield pivot experiment is actually mind numbing. for starters arda has done nothing to suggest he can play near the touchline or cut inside and he’s only looked good in matches playing centrally, imo he’s more of an 8 than a rw or playmaking 10 to me. second of all, it’s been painfully apparent that valverde plays best as a fullback and tchouameni as a centre back, both are incredibly underwhelming on the ball (tchouameni in particular). not much to say about the defence today, surprisingly they did their job especially cucurella when coming on and trent did well in the first half at creating chances which is why him being taken off confused me so much. i suppose vini being subbed on was good for confidence but it means nothing if you don’t have a big enough lead. very stupid red by the way (even if it was a yellow, dumb move generally). overall, i’m not surprised. 👎