Mourinho Praises Arda Güler After Real Madrid's 4–1 Victory

Real Madrid brushed past Rayo Vallecano 4–1, and José Mourinho walked into the press room sounding satisfied, but not fooled. For him, this was a match decided in a single burst of football.

“It was a 45-minute affair,” he said. “In 45 minutes, it was over.”

Madrid blew Rayo away early, then faded. Mourinho had seen it coming.

“I knew the team didn't have the physical and mental strength to play the second half the way they did,” he admitted. “The image that sums it all up is how Bellingham played in the last 10 minutes. Practically everyone made mistakes in build-up play, struggled to press, and with shots on goal… I already knew that. I expected it to be like that.”

The job, though, was long done by then. And one name kept surfacing: Arda Güler.

Arda’s impact and a bench full of answers

Güler came on and tilted the game further Madrid’s way, earning a pointed nod from his coach.

“Arda makes a big impact when he's on the pitch,” Mourinho said. “Arda has a very positive influence on the team's play. When he came on, he made all the difference in terms of the stability of our play.”

The Portuguese coach used the performance to underline the depth at his disposal. Quality, he insisted, isn’t confined to the starting XI.

“I'm 100% certain that if Diomande hadn't started today, the first question would have been, ‘Why isn't Diomande playing?’ There's nothing but quality on the bench. The line-up changes will be made on a match-by-match basis.”

Rotation, then, is not a concession. It’s a weapon.

“Too old to feel the pressure”: managing Yan Diomande

One of the main talking points around this Madrid side has been Yan Diomande and the clamour for him to start. Mourinho brushed off any suggestion that outside noise would dictate his choices.

“I'm a bit too old to feel the pressure,” he said. “In football you can have different squads; sometimes you have to pray that nobody gets injured, other times you've got plenty of options.”

Diomande clearly falls into the second category: a luxury option in a stacked attack, but still a work in progress.

“He'll keep improving bit by bit. He hasn't been at the top level for long and has a lot to learn tactically. But he's got incredible potential. In one-on-one situations, with his passing, shooting… He gives us loads of options.”

Those options stretch across the frontline.

“He can play where Vini does, on the right; Arda can play there too, or where Bellingham plays. Right now, I want to help him develop.”

The message was firm: Diomande will play, but on Mourinho’s terms, not the crowd’s.

Vinícius near top speed

If Diomande represents Madrid’s future, Vinícius remains one of its pillars. Mourinho sounded almost excited as he detailed the Brazilian’s condition.

“Physically, he's in better shape than ever. He's just a millimetre away from reaching his top speed. His ability to sustain effort is immense. It's a process he's getting to grips with.”

The mental side, Mourinho stressed, is just as impressive.

“Mentally, he's very strong; he knows Madrid better than anyone. He plays with a great sense of responsibility, that of representing Real Madrid and the Brazilian national team. He's calm. The goals will come.”

No panic, no alarm. Just a coach convinced that the numbers will follow the performances.

A team still under construction

For all the goals and attacking flair, Mourinho kept circling back to the idea of a project in motion rather than a finished product.

“I'm happy because we've been together for three months, although we can only really count from when we were all here,” he said. “What we're doing has a lot of positives. We're taking it step by step, always trying to improve.”

The first-half dominance and second-half drop-off fitted that narrative: a side capable of devastating spells, still learning how to sustain them.

No “fancy footwork” at 3–1

Even at 3–1 up late on, Mourinho’s instinct was to tighten the screws, not open the stage for a show.

His final substitution underlined that.

“Simple. I want to win, and I want to win by as many goals as possible,” he said. “When you're 3–1 up with five minutes to go, and Rayo have a very powerful full-back capable of creating danger… At that point, I felt it was best to shut the door.”

The entertainment, in his eyes, had already had its time.

“For me, the time for fancy footwork and scoring goals was over. Then we scored the fourth, even better.”

A ruthless coach, a deep squad, a 4–1 win, and the feeling that this Madrid still has several gears left. The question now is not whether they can blow teams away in 45 minutes—but how long they can keep that level when the season’s real pressure arrives.