{"id":21758,"date":"2026-01-27T21:50:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/mourinho-arbeloa-wasnt-the-best-but-he-was-probably-one-of-real-madrids-best-men\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T21:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:50:25","slug":"mourinho-arbeloa-wasnt-the-best-but-he-was-probably-one-of-real-madrids-best-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/mourinho-arbeloa-wasnt-the-best-but-he-was-probably-one-of-real-madrids-best-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourinho: “Arbeloa wasn’t the best, but he was probably one of Real Madrid’s best men”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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T<\/span>These are days of nostalgia for Jose Mourinho. Tomorrow, his Benfica team will face Real Madrid for a place in the next round of the Champions League. Ahead of the match, the Portuguese coach had affectionate words for his former club players Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso. However, Mourinho avoided getting involved in the Negreira incident.Special match: “It is difficult to predict. There is something undeniable about many things that can happen. You never know what will happen. We analyze and game plan, but there is a certain degree of unpredictability. We have to respect the nature of football and prepare in the best possible way. We play with respect. We know our opponents, but we also know who we are. We are not interested in other outcomes. We can only consider winning or not. The goal is one.”<\/p>\n
The Negreira affair and its famous “why”: “Honestly, I’m not interested. I live my career hand to mouth. What happened, happened.”<\/p>\n
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Kylian Mbapp coaches Thibaut Courtois with a great goal<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
On tomorrow’s referee and the transfer market: “I don’t want to say the door is closed. If the market is open, you never know what will happen. I’m not desperate about whether a player will be sent off or not. I’m calm. Regarding the referee… before the game I don’t care who the referee is. I always think the referee will be the best.”<\/p>\n
Your words about the coach and Arbeloa’s lack of experience: “I very much respect that you are trying to take things in a direction that interests you. The question is about Spalletti, and my answer is about him. In 2000, Benfica called a coach who had never coached anyone before. The coach thought they wanted him as an assistant, so they responded. It happened to me that the Spaniard was good for you to talk about Arbeloa and for the Italian to talk about Chivu. They are my children, they are my former players and from a human point of view he is one of my favorite players, I hope.<\/p>\n
Rivals’ top players: “We have to play with the characteristics we have, not what we don’t have. We have to play according to our team. It’s clear that to win we have to score one more goal than our opponent. We have to play to score, but at the same time we can’t suffer too much. We have to find a balance.”<\/p>\n
Xabi Alonso: “Xavi is also one of my sons. I have only positive memories. I was excited for tomorrow’s match against Alvaro. I was impressed and excited about Xavi. I am very happy about what he did at Leverkusen and his arrival at Madrid. I am not interested in what happened after that or why it ended. Anything can happen. He will be very happy now, because he has shown the level of management that he can reach.”<\/p>\n
Play-off qualification and the market: “I don’t think it has anything to do with it. We did the market in the summer and now we’re trying to improve for the rest of the year. I don’t think it has anything to do with balance. Missing out on qualification can be looked at from different points of view. The big problem at this stage is the loss at home, which we should have won. Now we arrive with nine points. We also lost the other games. The loss against Leverkusen decided our qualification.”<\/p>\n
Advice for Arbeloa: “I thought it would work well for him. Arbeloa can be coached by any club in the world. Madrid can be coached by any manager in the world and I hope it works out. Imagine for Alvaro. I think Arbeloa and Madrid are good. I can’t give him any advice. The important thing is that he’s happy. It’s a difficult job to be a coach because there are a lot of people who criticize you and talk about you every day. It’s important that he likes it. \u201d<\/p>\n
If you have talked to Arbeloa about the keys to the match: “I don’t talk to him. My phone number is very complicated because the club phone is the only one that is always there. And my family. My other phone also changes. Some people are unreachable and I am also unreachable. There is no need for good luck phone calls between him and me. He already knows. And… it’s easy. If we don’t win, we lose. We draw or we lose. If we win, we win. “Know it in the dressing room. \u201d<\/p>\n
Strategy: “We have nothing to lose. We are playing against a great team, great players. It’s kill or be killed. Tomorrow we will try to find balance and if we don’t have balance, Madrid will punish us.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n