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Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said on Tuesday that no player at the club is “untouchable,” including Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior, ahead of the team’s Champions League match against Germany’s RB Leipzig on Wednesday.
Mourinho made the remarks when asked by reporters whether Vinicius’ place in the team was under threat given the form of Ivorian winger Yan Diomande.
Vinicius has struggled for form this season and is serving a four-match ban in La Liga for hair-pulling, but he is available for the Champions League fixture. Diomande, the club’s record signing at €140 million ($157 million), has impressed in recent weeks and scored against Sevilla in La Liga on Sunday, with Vinicius absent.
“Only the club badge is untouchable,” Mourinho said. “I don’t like the concept of untouchable players. What makes a player untouchable is not his status, the armband, his years at the club, how much was paid for him; what makes him untouchable is his performance on the pitch.”
Mourinho said Vinicius will play on the left wing against Leipzig and that he has not yet told Diomande whether he will start.
Madrid hosts the Bundesliga side, aiming for a third Champions League victory from three league matches. In La Liga, it is third and six points behind leaders Barcelona, whom it visits on Sunday.
The Portuguese coach said the team’s level is still a long way from where he hopes to take it. “A long way off... we’ve been here three or four months, it’s impossible to be where we want to be,” Mourinho said. “We always have to improve, be it individually or collectively.”
Mourinho, who previously coached Madrid from 2010 to 2013, said he understands the club's demands are at their highest. “I can’t lose my direction... (even though) I know there is a lot of work to do,” he said.
French defender Ibrahima Konate said the former Chelsea and Manchester United coach commands respect. “He’s a great manager, I think he has this aura that not many managers have, because he doesn’t need to speak and everyone will listen and respect him,” Konate told reporters.
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