🎂 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, @ViniJr! pic.twitter.com/hlE5LwdePs— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) July 12, 2026
Mourinho’s Chelsea team had a greedy fast winger (Robben), a midfielder who just wanted to run into the box and score (Lampard) and zero passing creativity in the midfield (Makelele Essen Lampard). With the squad he has, I think he will go down that route, it wouldn’t surprise me if he bought a central defender before a passing midfielder.
Biggest difference was that they defended like maniacs as a collective. I don’t see Vinny/Mbappe/Jude/and the RW de jour doing the same.
Robben and Duff didn’t defend (not very well anyway). Drogba did, so did the midfield. And the defence was way better than ours too. There’s differences, and he always liked at least one creative midfielder in the squad (he had Joe Cole in that squad). But if he has to choose between defence or midfield upgrades, I see him doing down the route of first sorting out the defence, then adding to the creativity in midfield. He’s already added depth to fullback, I can’t see him staying with this central defence for more than a season, all of our central defenders can either never stay healthy or just aren’t good at the ugly parts of being a defender.
The difference was… A proper CF who can do more than just score goals opens up so many possibilities for a team while having one dimensional goal poaching purists like Mbappe can be incredibly limiting even for a team as robustly talented as Madrid. Also Makelele and Essien were more like box to box midfielders in the mold of a Modric, Camavinga, Redondo, etc., rather than hold the line and sit in front of the defense DM like Tchoumeni. Those guys could take players on dribbling, break down a defense and give a defense splitting pass. Much more dynamic than just being a giant wall that breaks up play.
The difference is he had a physically strong CF in Drogba. Kylian can't do that work to release the wings.
Mbappe, Vini and Jude is a dream trio to have in a football video, but Mou will have his work cut out in getting the best out of the three of them. Three other managers have previously failed this assignment.
I made another connection yesterday. I saw quite a few folks online saying Scaloni's "tactics" after the Enzo goal which were spamming crosses into the box was some kind of genius move. I recall watching a ton of Chelsea games back in the era you are talking about and that "genius' tactic was literally the only thing Jose would do when they were down. Spam crosses for Drogba and then Terry would go up for the last 5-10 mins if they needed it. I expect the same for us but we don't have a target man in there. But neither did Argentina. Sometimes that threat of Drogba and Terry in there would drag the second line so deep back into their area that Lampard would get that space he needs and would pop up with a goal and Chelsea go home happy. I expect that to make an appearance for us too. I doubt Jose is gonna bring anything new to the table at this stage of his career. I didn't follow his team in Turkey and Italy.
Don't disrespect Gonzalo like that. Seriously though, I am very surprised mostly about the CF options Jose seems to be ok going into the season with. There's no way he likes Mbappe and Endrick up front, and rumours seem to be linking Gonzalo with a move away.
As if mourinho has any say in who the club buys. until we get rid of Vinny or kylian, we won’t see any CF investment
🚨 BREAKING: Vini Jr underwent a CHIN HARMONIZATION surgery shortly after Brazil's elimination from the World Cup. @tmcesporte pic.twitter.com/eRPpSDU7XB— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) July 20, 2026 What’s going on with his chin? Looks a different person lol
I for one am pleased he got the chineal anti-fugly attunement, or whatever other random phrase his spin doctors have invented for his plastic surgery.
Jesus christ what kind of man injects their chin. I love Vini but this is an odd decision. Happiness comes from within not from injecting yourself with garbage.
He's the first and not going to be the last ⚠️ ATENÇÃO: Médico goiano responsável por harmonizar o rostinho do menino Vini Jr. também já fez serviço de funilaria na lataria do cantor Leonardo. "Não é só futebol" diz leitor. pic.twitter.com/Fw9tHqY6yu— Joaquin Teixeira (@JoaquinTeixeira) July 21, 2026 Yeah sure, second best creator for last season, top G/A provider for the club, highest rated player for Brazil NT and Madrid's all time best finals scorer. But lets not extend since he changed his chin the way he wanted.
My wife says he looks more handsome now lol I guess he got the desired outcome Vini is a great player, as long as he keeps assisting and scoring goals that’s all I care about This cosmetic type stuff isn’t my cup of tea but at the end of the day it’s his body & he’s not causing any harm so whatever