Mourinho believes Mbappe, Vinicius, and Bellingham can shine together

New Real Madrid coach, Jose Mourinho, is sure his star players can work well together as they prepare for their first La Liga match against Espanyol.

Mourinho's predecessors, Carlo Ancelotti, Xabi Alonso, and Alvaro Arbeloa, had a tough time finding the right balance between attack and defence with Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, and Jude Bellingham.

Madrid won the Champions League in 2024 with Bellingham and Vinicius making big impacts. But since Mbappe joined the team that summer, the club has not won any major trophy.

“They are incredible players and incredible players want to play with incredible players,” Mourinho told reporters.

“Tactically, it could be tricky. Ancelotti found a setup with Brazil perfect for Vini, (Didier) Deschamps has one with France perfect for Kylian, (Thomas) Tuchel has one perfect for Jude. It's harder for me to do it for all three of them.

“We’re on it. I want the three of them to feel comfortable on the pitch when they play together… they all have great quality.

“They don’t play in incompatible positions. We will have a great season with them.”

But Madrid's stars need to take note, they have to help out in defence this season.

“We have to defend with 11 players,” said Mourinho.

“If a team is pushing us back and giving us problems in our final third, we all have to defend.”

In his second spell at Real Madrid, Mourinho hopes his players make selection tough for him.

“There will be moments of frustration, because of results, or personal frustration,” said the 63-year-old coach.

“I told the players tomorrow there will come a moment of frustration for many of them because it will be the first time that I have to pick one as a starter and the other goes to the bench and feels frustrated. They have to handle that individually and as a group.

“I’m here to help them, but I can’t start a game with 15 players. Only 11 can play. I hope each game is difficult for me, because they keep working hard.”

“The day that one lowers his level because of frustration, decisions will be easy for me. I want hard decisions… the team needs to know how to deal with moments of frustration.”

Los Blancos have not won a major trophy for two seasons. Last season, a fight between Aurelien Tchouameni and Fede Valverde left Valverde needing hospital treatment.

But the Portuguese coach said the players have assured him there is no bad blood between them now.

“I’ve decided to start from zero… there was no need to speak to Tchouameni… seeing how they’re getting on, you can’t even imagine what happened last season,” said Mourinho.

“They practically told me there was no need to speak about it. I didn’t have to try to bring peace.

“From what I’ve seen, it’s not even about peace. It’s normality, friendship, and it’s like nothing happened.”

Mourinho said he does not feel pressure ahead of his second debut with Madrid.

“I wouldn’t call it pressure, I’d call it adrenaline. It’s a positive feeling,” added Mourinho. “The day I don’t feel it, something’s not right.”