Why doesn't Jose Mourinho give Brahim Diaz more minutes at Real Madrid?
One of the benefits Jose Mourinho has at Real Madrid this season is an embarassment of riches with his attacking options. With players like Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, and the newly arriving Yan Diomande looking set to be starters, Mourinho also has players like Arda Guler, Carlos Espi, Endrick, and Rodrygo (in a couple months) at his disposal should he look to rotate or drop a player who is underperforming.
Another attacker Mourinho also has at his disposal is Brahim Diaz. The Moroccan has somewhat fallen under the radar at Real Madrid due to all the superstar attacking power but that doesn't mean Brahim can't play a key role in Mourinho's team this season and has shown this pre-season why he should be getting more minutes this season.
Brahim could be Mourinho's secret weapon this season
Brahim has been a loyal servant to Real Madrid since his return to the club before the start of the 23/24 season and was one of the most underrated players for Real Madrid that season, stepping up when the team needed him, helping Real in their iconic La Liga and Champions League winning season. The 27-year-old has grabbed 22 goals and 30 assists in 163 appearances for Real Madrid, a strong output for the player who looked far off the level of Real Madrid when he arrived as a teenager back in 2019.
However as mentioned earlier Brahim has fallen down the attacking pecking order since Kylian Mbappe's arrival and with Diomande now in the attack, Brahim has fallen even further, however his strong pre-season campaign, grabbing the only goal in Real's 1-0 win over Deportivo La Coruña in the Teresa Herrera trophy game, he could sway Jose Mourinho's opinion resulting in more minutes, minutes he deserves. While the Moroccan may not have the goal scoring output of Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr, he brings something very important to table, his defensive work rate.
Brahim is one of the only attackers that is willing to forgo his attacking output to track back and do the defensive dirty work that Mbappe and Vinicius don't like to do, an attribute that Mourinho looks for in his attackers, which could play into Brahim's hands to earn more minutes this season.
While he will no doubt start the season as a bench player, that doesn't mean we won't be seeing a lot of Brahim this season. Brahim played 1,667 minutes for Real Madrid last season, which averages out to about 39 minutes per match. The season is long and off the back of this summer's World Cup players will surely get tired leading to rotation and Brahim could prove to be Mourinho's go to option off the bench, like we saw with Carlo Ancelotti back in the 23/24 season.
