Jose Mourinho is playing all the hits – but Real Madrid’s hopes of winning La Liga are already all-but over
Back in 2010, after a game between Real Madrid and Sevilla, Jose Mourinho turned up for his post-match press conference with a list of 13 alleged errors made by the referee, Clos Gomez. Meanwhile in 2026, at the Metropolitano on Sunday, after a dismal derby defeat to city rivals Atletico, the Portuguese only took issue with two decisions, but, on this occasion, he brought an A4 sheet adorned with a couple of colour screenshots to support his attack on the officials.
“We could have skipped the press conference because the story of the match is right here,” Mourinho told reporters, pointing to his piece of paper, which featured images of Lee Kang-In’s challenge on Federico Valverde, and Cristian Romero’s tackle on Jude Bellingham. “They’re two clear red cards.
“But I have to just hug my players, who played a great first half, full of class and character. And besides Atletico, the people who should be happy are [The Technical Committee of Referees].”
In that sense, this felt like vintage Mourinho, “the f*cking master” of media manipulation and misdirection, leaning into a perceived sense of injustice to create a siege mentality within his squad and, more importantly, distract attention away from a pretty pathetic performance. However, while such an approach may have worked 16 years ago (at least for a while), there’s very little evidence to suggest it will do so again.
