Real Madrid's Trophy Win Reveals Midfield Flaws

The Teresa Herrera Cup will sit nicely in Real Madrid’s cabinet. It will not calm the doubts.

At Riazor, with a full-strength side under José Mourinho in his second spell, Madrid did just enough to beat Deportivo La Coruña. The win wrapped a bow on pre-season, but it also underlined the same tactical flaw that has stalked them all summer: a hole in the heart of midfield that no friendly title can disguise.

On SER Deportivos, journalists Antonio Romero and Tomás Roncero did not bother with sugar-coating.

Romero acknowledged the usual caveat: pre-season lies. Legs are heavy, ideas are half-formed, and he reckons Madrid are operating at “20 to 30%” of what they can be. But even with that margin of error, his conclusion was blunt. Madrid, he insisted, still lack a true playmaker in the middle of the pitch.

“They have a superb defensive team, and an almost unbeatable attacking force, but there is room for improvement in midfield,” he said. The spine is strong at the back, the firepower up front is obvious. The bridge between the two remains fragile.

Roncero attacked the same issue from another angle: the market failure. The club went after Rodri Hernández. They did not get him. For him, that is not a minor detail, it is a structural problem.

“If you wanted to sign Rodri and you did not, that means you have to fill that void. If you do not end up signing him, you will feel this deficiency all season,” he warned, adding that Madrid can no longer act as if the gap is cosmetic. In his eyes, ignoring it now would be an act of complacency.

So where does the solution come from?

Romero pointed to what he called “the Mourinho method”. If any coach can win while almost leaping over midfield, it is the Portuguese. His teams have often survived – even thrived – with a functional, hard-working engine room rather than a classic conductor. Yet even that approach has limits, and Romero reminded listeners that Madrid’s most successful side in their history had a very different core: Casemiro, Kroos and Modrić. Balance, brains, and brutality in equal measure.

That is the template. The current squad is still searching for its version.

One name, in Romero’s view, could live in that sacrificial role and give Mourinho the hybrid he craves: Bernardo Silva. “Based on what I saw in La Coruña and what I have seen from him at City and his experience, I think Bernardo Silva would accept this sacrifice,” he said.

He painted Bernardo as the ideal soldier for Mourinho – a star willing to work like a foot soldier, dropping deeper, playing alongside Tchouaméni, helping to stitch play together while still offering flashes of creativity. “If he is asked to play alongside Tchouaméni and provide some support, he reminds me a little of Modrić,” Romero added, explicitly ruling out Camavinga, Arda Güler, Bellingham and Valverde for that specific duty. Those four bring energy, goals, or promise, but not the exact profile he believes Mourinho needs to anchor his idea of the team.

The debate over the midfield overshadowed almost everything else, but the new faces still drew scrutiny.

Romero called for calm around Yan Diomande. The excitement is understandable; the reality, he argued, is harsher. The youngster is not yet twenty, and the leap from “five good minutes with Leganés” to the demands of Real Madrid is enormous. The badge weighs heavy. Some players grow under that pressure, others shrink. The message was clear: Diomande needs time, not a spotlight that burns him out before he truly arrives.

Down the left flank, though, there was nothing cautious about his tone. Romero reserved glowing praise for Cucurella, the full-back who has already stirred anticipation at the Bernabéu.

“Diomande attracts a lot of attention, but the player everyone is eager to see running down the wing at the Bernabéu is Cucurella,” he said. This is the kind of player crowds fall for quickly: aggressive, vertical, constantly looking to surge forward. Romero tapped into a feeling that has lingered for years in the stands – a nostalgia for the days of Marcelo and Roberto Carlos, when every touch on the left sparked a murmur.

“Since Marcelo and Roberto Carlos, we have had a feeling at the Bernabéu that we will be able to enjoy a vertical left-back,” he concluded.

A friendly trophy is in the bag. The left side might soon roar again. But until Madrid solve that lingering question in midfield, Mourinho’s second era will begin with a familiar doubt hanging over a very ambitious season.