Real Madrid's Midfield Dilemma: Can Thiago Pitarch Step Up?
Real Madrid spent the summer staring at the same question from every angle: do they actually have enough in midfield?
The doubt was serious enough that the club went after Rodri. That pursuit alone was an admission. Madrid felt something was missing. When the move collapsed, they chose continuity, trusting the existing core and dragging Bernardo Silva a few metres deeper, away from the pure playmaker role he owned at City and closer to the engine room.
The season has started, and the same old issues have walked straight back through the door.
Spanish newspaper AS underlined it; the Inter game screamed it. Madrid never really put a foot on the ball, never truly dictated. The match ran away from them. Afterward, Fede Valverde revealed Mourinho’s instructions had been clear: keep possession, slow the tempo, impose control. It barely happened at all.
This isn’t a new crack in the structure. It’s a fault line that opened last season.
Back then, Arbeloa found an unexpected patch. From Castilla came Thiago Pitarch, a name few had pencilled into any first-team plans. He forced his way in. Minutes followed. More than 800 of them, in fact. He started both legs against City in the Champions League round of 16 and the first leg of the quarter-final against Bayern. That’s not a token promotion. That’s trust on the biggest nights.
This year, though, his role has blurred.
A summer exit was on the table. Then came an injury at the start of pre-season, and the door out slammed shut. With the market moving on without him, Pitarch stayed with the first team, even though he is officially registered with the reserves because there is no room in the senior squad list. The hierarchy at Valdebebas still treats him as one of the first team. His new contract underlines that status.
Now comes the hardest part: turning that status into minutes.
Mourinho has fixed his side in a 4-2-3-1. For Thiago, that means one thing: the double pivot or nothing. And that patch of grass is crowded. Valverde, Tchouaméni, Camavinga and Bernardo Silva stand in front of him. On paper, he is fifth out of five for two positions.
What he does have is last season’s evidence. Calm on the ball. Courage under pressure. A Madrid shirt that looked light on his shoulders when it can crush others. He never seemed to flinch.
Recently, Mourinho has barely used him, the injury leaving him behind the group physically. But the coach hasn’t forgotten. He knows exactly what Pitarch gave him last season and what he believes he can give again soon.
His verdict on the youngster was clear and public: “He is not a player to feature in the Castilla category, but rather a first-team player and I like him a lot. He has qualities that I like very much, and when he is fully fit he will be part of the group, and then there will be minutes waiting for him to play, as he has very high quality.”
The message is encouraging, but it comes with a demand.
Mourinho wants Pitarch sharper, stronger, especially without the ball. The Portuguese coach has never hidden his standards in that area. He told the midfielder directly what needed to change: “The only thing I tell him is that his leg muscles are like mine, and he needs to add two kilograms there through work.”
So the picture is set. Madrid still wrestle with control in midfield. The club chased Rodri and ended up turning inward. The system squeezes Pitarch into the tightest space in the squad, yet the coach insists he belongs at this level and challenges him to build the body to match the talent.
If Thiago finds those two extra kilograms and the rhythm to go with them, the answer to Madrid’s big summer question might already be standing in their own training ground.
