Endrick may not like what Jose Mourinho said about his minutes after Roma masterclass
Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho was asked about Endrick's performance against Roma, as well as the general minutes that he has played this season, in a recent press conference before the match against Sevilla on Sunday. The answer that he gave to the question was something that is indirectly an answer you give to a player who is not going to start many games.
He said, "I think sometimes we struggle to give credit to those who do things well. You criticise them harshly when things go wrong. It is all thanks to the lad who gave it his all. The three goals from corners and how those corners were won: in 10 minutes, we had about seven corners because we had an avalanche of football.
"There are many players who deserve to play. There are more than 11 who deserve to play, maybe 15 or 16. I can't put all of them in the starting 11. We'll all agree that the five players who came on and changed the game deserve to play tomorrow, but what about the others? Doesn't Diomande deserve to play? Doesn't Cucurella deserve to play? Doesn't Valverde deserve to play? Doesn't Mbappé deserve to play? It just goes to show that it is a difficult part of a coach's job. "
Endrick has done more in limited minutes than most of the players Jose Mourinho mentioned
Comparing all of those players to Endrick just because he played 20 to 30 minutes, and saying whether those players deserve to play any less than Endrick does, is a bit of a weird analogy that Mourinho used in his press conference. Those players have already been playing so much, and many of them have had difficult starts to the season. Endrick, on the other hand, has only played 30 minutes and has already shown more promise and fight than many of the players that he mentioned.
Saying that Endrick deserves the spot does not mean Diomande does not deserve the spot, because both of them can coexist. Endrick provides a lot of value to the team in a position of need in the attack. He brings chaos and is able to dribble past players at will, which is something that, apart from Diomande, no one has been doing in the attack.
Kylian Mbappé scores a few goals here and there, but he has been underwhelming in these last few games. Vinicius Junior has had a bad start to the season.
If you don't even think about benching some of these so-called superstars for players who are obviously playing better than them or have played better than them in at least one game, then it is a question of hierarchy and not merit. Yes, it is difficult to start Endrick and not start some of the other stars.
Managing Real Madrid is a difficult job because of the quality of so many players in the team, but that also gives the manager enough room to work with these players and play them in terms of merit and not hierarchy.
Whenever Mourinho or any other manager gives an answer like this, it usually means that if everyone is back in the team, Endrick will not start, which just does not make sense. To play devil's advocate, it may be so that Endrick is not under pressure, which, in fairness, would be a very good tactic to use.
The most likely option is that Endrick is only playing football now, but there is no guarantee of how much he'll play in the match on Sunday. It actually should just be a question of whoever deserves to play.
Hopefully, Endrick gets the minutes that he deserves, because he has shown so much promise in such limited time.
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