Mourinho Gives Real Madrid Players His Line-Up And Waits To See Which Journalist Gets It First

José Mourinho has challenged Spanish journalists to discover his Real Madrid starting line-up after confirming that the players already know who will face Espanyol on Saturday.

Mourinho was asked during his pre-match press conference whether he had decided his team and whether the players had been informed.

He had, and they had.

The Portuguese explained that he does not believe in hiding selection decisions from his own squad before suggesting the journalists could now compete to see who had the best sources inside it. Mourinho refused to reveal the team himself, saying instead that they would discover which reporters had sufficiently strong contacts to obtain it before the official announcement.

It is a relaxed approach to leaked Real Madrid line-ups from a manager who has previously taken a somewhat different view of leaked Real Madrid line-ups.

During Mourinho’s first spell at the Bernabéu between 2010 and 2013, information escaping from the dressing room became a major source of tension. His recently released documentary revisits an occasion when a starting XI appeared in the press before a league match, prompting Mourinho to confront his players as he tried to identify the source of the leak.

The episode became part of the wider breakdown in relations between Mourinho and sections of the Madrid dressing room during his final season, with the identity of the supposed internal “mole” becoming a story in itself.

Thirteen years later, Mourinho is back at Real Madrid and appears considerably more comfortable with the possibility of journalists knowing his team in advance.

His players have been told who is starting against Espanyol.

The only remaining question is which journalist finds out next.