Mourinho looks for balance at Real Madrid
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Jose Mourinho said this Thursday that he would look for balance in the Real Madrid side he coaches next season.
Although Mourinho still has to sort out some details of his departure from Inter Milan before being officially presented, Real president Florentino Perez announced on Wednesday that the Portuguese trainer would replace Manuel Pellegrini at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.
Mourinho will be a popular choice after having led Inter to the Champions League this season, but there are doubts over his preferred style of play.
Inter played a well organized defensive game, while Real Madrid fans typically demand open attacking football.
Speaking in sports paper Diario AS, Mourinho was at pains to put them at ease.
"It will be a balanced team. A team that wants to wins titles, has to know its defects and its virtues and it has to work as a unit. A team that wants to win titles has to win matches and a team that wants to win matches has to play well," he said.
"We will be a team that has its own identity and we will not try and imitate anyone. That identity will be established by the players and myself and we will have to work hard," he said, promising a summer of tough workouts in preparation for next season.
"The pre-season will be strange after a World Cup and because there are international matches on August 11, but we will have to get to the first game of the season in perfect shape," he warned.
Mourinho said he preferred a four man defense, but added that he was flexible in that and said he had at times played with just three defenders in his sides. He also dropped hints of interest in signing Ashley Cole from Chelsea and Maicon from Inter Milan.
He also said that the club's attacking players: Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Higuain would have to work hard in defensive tasks.
"A team is a team and in the same way that strikers wants players from other areas to help them, so they will have moments in a season when they too have to sacrifice effort for the good of the team," said Mourinho, who played down the hostility he faces from FC Barcelona, where he spent several seasons as assistant to Bobby Robson and Louis Van Gaal.
"I don't want enemies anywhere, that has never been my aim," he said.
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