Jose Mourinho is breaking his golden rule just to protect Vinícius Junior and company
Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho, before their match against Leipzig, said that what matters most is a player's performance on the pitch rather than any criteria for being an untouchable outside of it. Mourinho was asked this question before the 4-1 win on Wednesday, and he essentially ruled out the concept of having untouchable players in the eleven. He said that no one is untouchable at Real Madrid, and the only thing that can make someone untouchable is if the player consistently has great performances.
He said, "I rule that concept out. I don't like this concept of an untouchable player. What makes a player untouchable is not their status, it is not their captain's armband, it is not the number of years they have been at the club, and it is not how much we were paid for them. What makes a player untouchable is their performance on the pitch."
Vinicius Junior, Fede Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni have not been good in their natural positions
The idea of that is really good in theory, but when you look at it, look at how Real Madrid have been playing and how Jose Mourinho has picked some of his squads for certain games. You would think that, in fact, there is a hierarchy involved here and that they are untouchable at Real Madrid. It's just that Mourinho does not want to say it.
If a manager keeps talking about one player as a starter for an upcoming game, regardless of the form that player has been in, he will be called an untouchable. According to Mourinho, what makes a player untouchable is how they play on the pitch. Vinicius Junior has not played well even once this season. However, he still had his left-wing spot secured for the game against Leipzig long before the game against Sevilla.
Despite his poor form, that simply goes against what Mourinho has just said in the pre-match press conference before the match against Leipzig. Vinicius Junior started the match against Leipzig and played 70 bad minutes before being subbed off. Mourinho also refused to answer whether Yan Diomande would start, but he did say that Vinicius Junior would.
If this was really about a player's performance on the pitch, Vinicius Junior would not be near the lineup, nor should Aurelien Tchouameni. Yet, both of them have played quite a bit this season. Even Fede Valverde, whose only good performances have come when he has played out wide, is also starting most games, if not all. In that case, Valverde, too, is untouchable.
Mourinho's theory isn't wrong by any means. It is the application of the theory that is very inconsistent for some of these players, and hopefully these players eventually prove Real Madrid fans wrong. At the moment, it just does not seem that they will. By Mourinho's logic, at least two of them should not be starting.
