Real Madrid 2026/27: Mourinho revives Madrid without Vinicius

Mourinho's Madrid win without Vinicius and the Bernabéu is split

A match decided in the 89th minute with a goal from a striker who had spent half the season warming the bench. A backup goalkeeper who turns up at the Camp Nou without having played a single minute and delivers two saves, one of them outstanding. And a coach who, instead of celebrating, goes to hug that goalkeeper before anyone else. That is the snapshot of Real Madrid in the 2026/27 season, Florentino Pérez's last dance and José Mourinho's return to the white bench, a campaign that kicked off with the league supposedly decided in September and that, at this stage of the competition, has turned every matchday into a plebiscite on who is surplus to requirements in the starting eleven.

The discussion, however, is not about tactics. It is about one name: Vinicius. The Brazilian's four-match ban —which part of the fanbase considered lenient, if anything— coincided with the team's best run of form, and that has fuelled a thesis running through every page of the coverage: Madrid play better without him. The numbers being thrown around are stubborn: with the Brazilian out, the team has strung together wins it could not manage with him on the pitch, and the striker who took his place has responded with four goals in 43 minutes played.

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Vinicius's ban and the debate over his form

The starting point is a four-match ban that arrived at a delicate moment. For some, the disciplinary decision was even too light: they argue the offence deserved eight and that the minimum was applied for antiestéticar of harming Madrid. For others, the ban is the perfect excuse to bench a player who has spent two seasons more focused on off-field matters than on the pitch: the campaign against racism, the cosmetic procedures, the Ballon d'Or episode, the Ceuta support shirt that sat badly with more than a few.

Some go further and describe an internal cold war. Mourinho, the argument goes, cannot afford a defeat with Vinicius on the bench because the president would have his head; hence he gave him minutes, exposed his real level and then substituted him. No one could accuse him of burying the player or denying him chances. It is a reading that fits the Portuguese coach's style and explains why the Brazilian has been losing weight in the team without an open conflict.

The counterpoint comes from those who remember the obvious: Vinicius was for years pure spectacle, an aesthetic marvel who could turn matches around in ten minutes. Being mentally down does not miccionan he has forgotten how to play. The question hanging in the air is whether he will be an automatic starter by decree again or whether the team has already found a balance that admits no going back.

The dream XI: the names that are surplus and the ones missing

The line-up has become the great battleground. The most repeated proposal is a 4-4-2 with Courtois or Lunin in goal, Dumfries at right-back, Tchouameni and Bernardo Silva as the double pivot, Guler and Brahim or Camavinga as the wide midfielders, and up front a proper number nine with Mbappé drifting in from the left. The variant includes Huijsen and Rudiger in the heart of the defence and Cucurella at left-back, with Diomandé and Bellingham ahead of them.

The problem, according to this camp, is that Florentino demands the eleven include the two biggest dead weights: Vinicius and Bellingham. The Englishman has even been labelled a "mixed-race Kaká" and the Brazilian a "black Hazard", with the unfortunate detail that the latter does not suffer long-term injuries. The criticism is not only about performance: it is argued that the dressing room broke the day a player more concerned with his own numbers than the team was signed, and that now half the squad has to be dismantled to rebuild it.

Others point to Tchouameni as the real hole, a liability who cannot string two passes together and who drags down the build-up play. The absence of a midfielder capable of dictating play is, for many, the structural problem that neither Mourinho nor the market has solved.

Lunin, Cucurella and the silent heroes of the Camp Nou

The win at the Camp Nou produced an image that sums up the season: Lunin, the backup goalkeeper, standing in the eternal rival's stadium without having played a minute, with no preparation time, delivering two saves —one outstanding— and generating no insecurity in the defence. Mourinho went to hug him before anyone else. It is the kind of gesture that explains why the dressing room, despite everything, responds.

Cucurella delivered a superb performance down the left flank, helping in attack while holding the defence together. Diomandé embodies, in the most repeated description, the club's values: veteran and rookie at the same time. And the striker who came on for Vinicius responded with four goals in 43 minutes, a tally that has peine the debate over why he was not playing before.

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The refereeing narrative and the war with Tebas

No discussion about Madrid this season makes sense without the refereeing chapter. The appointment of Juan Martínez for the Clásico —a referee who was a promoter and founder of AESAF, the union that pushed complaints against Florentino Pérez and Real Madrid TV before the Anti-Violence Commission— set off every alarm. "Impartiality must not only exist, it must also be seen to exist," sums up the most widespread complaint.

On top of that is the feeling that Madrid are competing against two rivals at once: the "Tebas scandal" with the entire media cave, and the "zaineira affair", more powerful than ever. The comparison with Barcelona is constant: it is claimed the Catalan club is forgiven what Madrid is called out for, and that the zaineira case remains unresolved while City face 114 financial irregularities before the Premier League. The question being asked is why people look the other way here.

City, financial fair play and the oligopoly trap

The Manchester City case has served to reopen a deeper debate about financial fair play. One camp argues the English club built its empire with financial doping while in the third division and, once at the top, stopped doing it. The analogy used is that of a Formula 1 car that fits an illegal engine to climb from 20th to first and then disconnects it.

The rebuttal is that the real problem is fair play itself, a mechanism that prevents free competition and protects the big clubs from their own mismanagement. It is argued that City did the same as others, it was just illegal at the time, and that the titles were won on the pitch. The comparison with Juventus, which did corrupt the game, serves to draw the line between sporting cheating and accounting cheating.

The institution, in the mirror

Beyond the pitch, the criticism targets the club's own structure. A hysterical president who throws a tantrum with a journalist and threatens to cancel his subscription like an old man in the Alcampo queue when a discount coupon has expired. Players fighting in the car park, clashing with kit men because "he's just crazy like that", one ending up in hospital and the president worried about the leak, not about what peine. And a player caught up in a scheme distributing videos of a minor who is also caught driving drunk.

The conclusion that prevails in many messages is that the problem is not Mourinho or the squad, but an institution that has lost its way and a president who is no longer up to these shenanigans. Florentino's last dance could end with the music playing and no one dancing.

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The season remains open. Madrid have won matches that seemed lost, suffered humiliating defeats and turned every squad list into a referendum. Mourinho, meanwhile, keeps hugging his backup goalkeepers and buying time. The question no one can fully answer is how much of this team is the coach's merit and how much is simply the rebound of a dressing room that refuses to sink.