Those of us who tipped Real Madrid to win LaLiga at the start of the season now owe a small debt of appreciation to midfielder Eduardo Camavinga.
With Barcelona threatening to open up an alarming nine-point advantage at the top of LaLiga after only 10 matches, Camavinga’s impact from the bench in Sunday’s Camp Nou Clásico means Madrid’s deficit behind their arch rivals is now just three points.
Camavinga’s productivity in putting Madrid’s late winner on a plate for Kylian Mbappé, now looks inevitable given the context.
In the 13th game of manager José Mourinho’s second stint in charge at Madrid, it was the 13th time that his side scored in the final 10 minutes. A good record. It was also the 13th time this season that a Madrid substitute has produced a goal or an assist.
That latter achievement would have been higher had forward Carlos Espí‘s outrageous overhead kick at Real Betis last month not been ruled out for a previous offside, and had Vinícius Júnior‘s excellent finish against Villarreal not been disallowed because of his hair-brained hair-pull on opposing midfielder Nathan Saliba.
It points to Madrid’s powerful, point-winning resources. It reflects well on the club’s fitness and medical staff, on the players’ collective hunger and motivation — whether in the starting XI or on the bench — and, recently at least, it is a positive endorsement of Mourinho.
In the first part of the season, Mourinho showed a strong, troubling pattern where he looked short of trust in his bench, hesitant over when and how to use his prodigiously talented subs, and partially culpable for failing to avert defeats or stumbling performances.
In other words, it wasn’t just Madrid’s on-pitch performance on Sunday that peaked in time to earn a crucial Clásico win; it was their coach’s assertiveness, confidence and efficiency, too.
Mourinho’s 13-match assessment-report has gone from “flawed” to “fabulous.”
A quick recap for those who didn’t watch Madrid’s 2-1 win and Barcelona’s first league defeat at Camp Nou since May 2023 — an abrupt end to their record of 19 straight LaLiga victories since their renewed stadium reopened.
Camavinga came on in the 80th minute for the excellent but flagging midfielder Bernardo Silva and, within seven minutes, the France international sprinted onto teammate Arda Güler‘s pass before cutting an assist back towards Mbappé for the winning goal.
“There are coaches who want to make changes, look at the bench and don’t have solutions,” Mourinho said after the game. “A lot of coaches struggle because they can’t put their ideas on the field.
“I have a rich bench with players who could be starters. Camavinga played exceptionally against Leipzig, yet today, he started on the bench.”
The 63-year-old Portuguese coach then gave a sharp, info-filled assessment of exactly why he threw Camavinga on plus what he asked him to do: Essentially, Aurélien Tchouaméni was to hold his defensive position in central midfield so that Camavinga could make punching runs into space aimed at beating Barça’s offside trap.
It played out exquisitely, and it was aided by a little bit of magic from Jude Bellingham when Madrid found themselves caged in by pressing Barça players. Mourinho justifiably drew significant praise for how he deployed his resources, and how he read the dying stages of a tied match.
However, we’re employed for clear-eyed analysis and praise when it’s due, rather than sycophancy, and it’s worth pointing out that for several matches Mourinho has sometimes looked questionable in his pre-game analysis, conservative in team selection and slow to act when in-match decisions have been required.
Some examples: While drawing 1-1 with the eminently beatable Espanyol — the side now languishing third-bottom with only two wins all season — Mourinho had only used two of his five substitutions by the 80th minute. Strange.
Which is when, slightly tardy, he throws on Espí, and the striker nets a 90th-minute glory goal. Winners write history and, so, it looked like a masterstroke.
But with 11 minutes left at 1-1, Madrid were struggling for a breakthrough, and the lack of bench action left a different impression.
In the home win over Rayo Vallecano, with his tiring team crying out for freshness and energy (wholly understandable given how difficult and short a preseason Madrid were able to plan given how many of their key footballers had long FIFA World Cup summers) Mourinho only used three subs before the 90th minute. In that same Rayo game, Mourinho didn’t even use all of his five subs.
“Once again, the Madrid that played with persistence vanished, giving way to a maddeningly inconsistent version of the team,” Spanish newspaper AS wrote. “The crowd whistled them for dozing off.”
Rather than exhaustively go through each odd moment so far this season, we can tie this analysis up with the matches against Betis (1-0 defeat) and AS Roma (towering 4-3 comeback win).
In Seville, with Betis on the rise and not having been tucked away despite Madrid making chance after chance, Madrid reached the 82nd minute having only made three changes. Then Espí, The Special One Off The Bench, was only told to warm up once opposing striker Troy Parrott made it 1-0.
It was too little too late, even after Espí’s disallowed brilliant overhead effort and Mbappé missing a late penalty.
Then came Rome, and a game whose location reminds us that Mourinho’s second reign is in its infancy and that Madrid won’t be built in a day.
Mourinho picked a tactic which was to try and break Roma manager Gian Piero Gasperini’s notorious man-to-man marking and high press with long balls from goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.
Nevertheless, disjointedly, he then left his best aerial performer, Espí, on the bench until the 78th minute with Roma 3-1 up, with scant few headers being won or knockdowns being provided.
His substitutions — he brought on Endrick and Espí, who both scored, as well as Güler, who provided two huge assists — made Mourinho look like The Special One again. But it left lingering questions: Did Mourinho read the match tactics incorrectly to begin with? Shouldn’t he have reacted sooner?
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Mourinho: Real Madrid won El Clásico with all the merit
Six times in his 13 games this season, Mourinho has not used all five allotted subs — in an era when, everyone accepts, elite players are being squeezed mentally, physically and emotionally to their absolute limits.
Eccentric? Idiosyncratic? Genius that only he understands? Your decision, reader.
Mourinho, who’s been noticeably less bellicose and increasingly happy to explain tactical ideas (both of which are to be welcomed), was amusing the other day when, on this subject, he answered a news conference question by saying: “It’s a difficult part of a coach’s job. There’ll be colleagues at other clubs who possess fewer solutions than I do here saying: ‘José! How fortunate you are to have these kind of problems!’
“And it’s true — I’m lucky to have a squad like this — but I’m unfortunate to have reporters like you lot who always only talk about the complications of a situation like ours!”
Then, in my opinion, came the clearest indication of him realizing that he needed a reset and an indication that, like his players, Mourinho was sharper, on-form and ready to win the Clásico.
It came before last weekend’s victory over Sevilla, which sparked this big-game hat trick of wins and convincing performances.
Asked to concede that he needed to use midfielder Federico Valverde at right back and Güler as a creative midfielder, the Madrid coach initially pushed back. He pointed out that until artificial intelligence (AI) or fan polls take over team selection duties, it was he who is in charge.
Mourinho pointed out that his views were more important and better informed than journalists’, ex-players’ or fans’. Then, he very carefully and significantly admitted that the coach who won’t see what’s in front of him on “the green grass” or “listen to his coaching team” is “stubborn” and “a limited one.”
“I can certainly head in a different direction — a football match lasts 90 minutes, has many nuances, and features many different phases,” Mourinho said. “The five substitutions rule — especially for teams with very strong benches — is a crucial strategic element.”
Exactly, José, exactly.
It was an indication that there were contra-voices within his staff as to some parts of how he was using his resources. Sunday was an indication that he has begun to listen.
Effectively, it was the beginning of the build-up to his sharp thinking on how, when and why to push Camavinga into the fray on Sunday night.
Right now, Real Madrid sit three points off LaLiga leaders Barça and are level on points at the top of the UEFA Champions League league phase.
If Mourinho has been previously slow to trust his squad resources, overly conservative in some choices, but is now hitting his stride and resetting his ideas, then Real Madrid’s domestic and European rivals had better batten down the hatches.
Madrid are on the rise again.
