Give me a break: Jose Mourinho takes charge of his
first game as Real manager which ended in a draw
Jose Mourinho has warned Real Madrid fans not to expect
miracles from him and told them: 'I'm not Harry
Potter.'
The Portuguese oversaw a goalless draw at Real Mallorca in his
opening La Liga match in charge, a result which was something of a
disappointment for supporters following the fanfare of his arrival
at the Bernabeu.
But Mourinho believes his team, including new men such as
Ricardo Carvalho, Angel Di Maria and Mesut Ozil, need time to
gel.
'Look, I'm a coach, I'm not Harry Potter,' he told AS. 'He is
magical, but in reality there is no magic. Magic is fiction and
football is real.
'I have been in Madrid a couple of months and we've had 40
training sessions. Do you know how many training sessions we have
had together, including the new signings? Not 10. I repeat: not
10.'
Mourinho is determined to completely change the way Real played
last season and says the players are still adapting to his new
style of play.
'The easiest thing for me would have been not to change
anything,' he said, 'To play like we played last year and keep the
structure that already existed.
'That would have been easier to start the season, but it would
have been misleading. That's not the direction that I want to
go.'
Mourinho insists he is not overly concerned by the opening draw
and revealed his superstitious side.
'Early matches are always very strange," he said. "Bayern lost
this weekend, Inter drew, Juventus lost, Manchester United drew
with Fulham.
Language barrier: Mesut Ozil is struggling to
understand Mourinho's instructions
'I'll say one thing for the superstitious. My seasons at
Porto and Inter always started with a draw.
'In Porto we then won four titles and at Inter we got two in the
first season and three titles in the second. I do not see a draw as
a drama on the first day.
'Winning this game was not a pre-requisite for a great season.
But I'm not going to lie, obviously I wanted to win my first
game.'
Mourinho left new signings Mesut Ozil and fellow German Sami
Khedira on the bench at Mallorca and admitted the language barrier
was a problem as neither speak any Spanish.
'It's not easy for the Germans,' he said. 'They do not speak a
word of Spanish. They can just say 'buenos dias' and 'hola'.
'The work we do is intense and luckily I have an assistant who
speaks some German and has given them my instructions.
'But it's not easy for my message to get across as I wish. In
addition, the social life of the group is still zero for them
Patience. Give them time.'