Real Madrid's Preseason: Six Players Under Pressure with Mourinho's Return
The gates at Valdebebas opened this week to a familiar figure with unfinished business. José Mourinho is back in charge at Real Madrid, and preseason has started with more questions than stars on the training pitch.
Many of Madrid’s World Cup contingent are still scattered across beaches and recovery camps, but the work has already turned serious. Those not involved in the tournament reported on July 13, greeted by a demanding new regime and a coaching staff reshaped in Mourinho’s image, with former midfielder Sami Khedira now on the other side of the whistle.
The brief is blunt: restore a winning mentality at a club that has gone two seasons without a major trophy. For some players, this summer is not just about fitness. It is about survival.
Here are six Madrid players who cannot afford a quiet July.
Trent Alexander-Arnold: Under the microscope
Trent Alexander-Arnold walked back into training earlier than he expected. Left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup, he has had time to stew, reset and now face a manager who does not tolerate defensive indulgence.
His first season in Madrid was fine. Not a disaster, not a revelation. The right-back’s passing and delivery flashed at times, but the old doubts followed him from Liverpool: lapses in concentration, space left exposed, opponents invited on.
Now the context has changed. Denzel Dumfries has arrived to compete directly for his position, and Mourinho has never hidden his preference for full-backs who defend first and talk later. For Alexander-Arnold, these early weeks are a test of whether he can convince a coach who prizes structure and discipline that his attacking gifts justify a starting role.
If he does not, Mourinho will not hesitate to turn to someone more in tune with his defensive gospel.
Dean Huijsen: A window of opportunity
Dean Huijsen should have been in a very different place this month. The young defender helped Spain through qualification, only to watch Luis de la Fuente choose Atlético Madrid’s Marc Pubill for the World Cup squad instead.
That disappointment has turned into an opening at Madrid.
Huijsen’s 2025–26 campaign mirrored the team’s season: promising in spells, fragile in key moments. The raw materials are there for a top-level centre-back, but his timing is awkward. Mourinho has already started to reshape the back line, with Ibrahima Konaté, Marc Cucurella and Dumfries coming in and at least one more defensive signing expected.
Mourinho’s track record is clear. When in doubt, he trusts experience over potential at the back. Yet the calendar has given Huijsen a small advantage. Konaté is still on World Cup duty, Éder Militão remains injured, and preseason friendlies will need bodies. For Huijsen, those games are more than tune-ups. They are auditions.
Impress now, or risk being pushed down a depth chart that is filling up fast.
Eduardo Camavinga: At a crossroads
Eduardo Camavinga is back early as well, not through choice but omission. Unexpectedly left out of France’s World Cup squad, he has reported to Valdebebas facing a future that looks increasingly blurred.
Once seen as a pillar of Madrid’s midfield for the next decade, Camavinga has stalled. Recent seasons have brought more questions than progress, and his name has floated around England as a possible summer departure. So far, though, nothing concrete has landed on the club’s desk.
He wants to stay. That much is known. What is unclear is where Mourinho sees him. As a pivot in a double midfield screen? As a rotational piece? As a saleable asset if the right offer finally arrives?
With the World Cup core still away, Camavinga has the rare chance to play himself into Mourinho’s plans before the hierarchy settles. His energy and ball-winning remain undeniable. This preseason will show whether that is enough for a manager who demands clarity in every role.
Brahim Díaz: Time to step out of the shadows
While some of his club teammates rested, Brahim Díaz lit up the World Cup stage for Morocco, driving their run to the quarterfinals and taking on the kind of responsibility he has rarely enjoyed in Madrid white.
For his country, he is a central figure. For his club, he has been a useful option, a spark off the bench, a “bit-parter” in a squad packed with attacking names.
That status cannot hold forever.
Rodrygo Goes is still rehabbing from an ACL injury, leaving a vacancy on the right wing in Mourinho’s preferred 4-2-3-1. It is an opening tailor-made for a 26-year-old who has waited for a proper run of games at elite level.
Díaz will not join up immediately after only bowing out of the World Cup on July 9, but once he returns, the message will be clear: this is your window. A sharp preseason could turn him from rotation piece into first-choice. A quiet one, and he risks watching someone else claim the role he has been circling for years.
Arda Güler: Talent versus template
Arda Güler’s World Cup ended early with Türkiye’s group-stage exit, which means he is expected back in Madrid sooner than many of his peers. For his country, he is already indispensable. At club level, his place feels far less secure.
The 21-year-old is a pure talent: vision, technique, a left foot that can unlock games. Mourinho, though, tends to build around players who fit a clear tactical template. That is where the tension lies.
Can Güler handle the physical demands of a double pivot? Does he have the legs to work wide in a system that asks its wingers to run as much as they create? The No.10 role looks spoken for, with Jude Bellingham entrenched there, and the arrival of Bernardo Silva — the archetypal Mourinho midfielder, intelligent and industrious — only tightens the squeeze.
One report from SPORT suggested Mourinho picked up the phone after Türkiye’s elimination to reassure Güler of his faith. Words help. Minutes matter more. Preseason will show whether those assurances translate into a defined role or polite encouragement from a manager already leaning toward players he knows and trusts.
Endrick: Hype, doubt, and a decisive summer
Few players split opinion like Endrick. To some, he is a generational forward in the making. To others, he is an internet punchline, a symbol of hype outrunning reality.
The truth, as usual, sits somewhere between the extremes.
His half-season at Lyon was undeniably productive: 16 goal involvements in 24 matches, enough to earn a place in Brazil’s World Cup squad. Yet back at Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti barely used him, a decision that turned into a running joke for those eager to see the teenager fail.
Now Ancelotti is gone, and the slate has been wiped, if not clean, then cleaner. Reports suggest Madrid are not planning another loan spell this year. That means the question is no longer whether Endrick will be around, but how Mourinho can make him fit.
The answer will start to form in these friendlies and double sessions. Can he convince a notoriously demanding coach that he is more than a marketing project? Can he show the movement, work rate and maturity to lead the line or support from the flank in a structured 4-2-3-1?
If he does, he may finally move from theory to reality in the eyes of his own club.
Mourinho’s first weeks back in Madrid will be dominated by drills, fitness tests and tactical briefings. Beneath that, a quieter battle is unfolding. For Alexander-Arnold, Huijsen, Camavinga, Díaz, Güler and Endrick, this is not just another preseason.
It is their chance to prove they belong in the next version of Real Madrid — or risk discovering that Mourinho’s new era has no room for them at all.
