Mourinho: We could be better

Jose Mourinho admits that his Real Madrid side did not play very well as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Valencia on Sunday evening.

Los Blancos took an early lead through Gonzalo Higuain, but were pegged back by Mauricio Pellegrino’s side and ultimately frustrated.

It is the second season in a row that Los Che have come away from the Bernabeu having finished all square, and Mourinho could see the comparisons between the games.

“Clearly we want to always win. There is no game that you can draw and stay happy,” he told reporters after the game.

“This game was tough because we had chances to score, but games will always be drawn during a season.

“This match was similar to the one we played last year. We did not play well, but we had done enough for a win.

“Their goalkeeper made some crucial saves. If we had played a bit better, we would have created more. We played well enough o win, but we must still play better.

“We sought heat in pre-season because we knew we would have such heat in Spain for the first month, so heat cannot be an excuse.”

The Coach then gave a brief update on the condition of Pepe, who was forced off at half-time after colliding with his goalkeeper when trying to defend the set-play from which Valencia equalised.

“I am concerned about the status of the player, he is not well, we do not know if he will play in the Super Cup or not.”

Mourinho sprung a surprise in the line-ups by opting for Lassana Diarra over Sami Khedira.

“He had played a very good pre-season and physically he was above the others and I thought it was important to have him on the field. He has done his job well.

“Then, the substitution [Karim Benzema on for Diarra] went well because in the last 30 minutes we had more of the ball and more chances.”

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