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Diomande has scored two goals for Real Madrid In La Liga.
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The Ivory Coast young star joined Real Madrid from RB Leipzig in the Summer.
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Mourinho warned Diomande to improve on his finishing.
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Mourinho not thinking of Sunday’s El Clasico clash against Barcelona.
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Diomande also became the youngest Real Madrid player in the 21st century to score and assist in the same La Liga match
October 19, (THEWILL) – Real Madrid coach, Jose Mourinho, has warned young star, Yan Diomande, to focus on improving several parts of his game despite scoring against Sevilla on Sunday.
Diomande joined Real Madrid from RB Leipzig in the summer for a base fee of €125 million, with potential add-ons bringing the total package up to €140 million.
Mourinho handed the young star a rare start against Sevilla following the suspension of Vinicius Junior.
He scored his second goal of the season in the 4-1 victory and also assisted Arda Guler for the first goal.
However, The Portuguese coach has warned Diomande to keep working hard to improve some aspects of his game.
“He has a lot to improve and a lot of room for improvement. He’s young, naïve, and an unfinished product. At Real Madrid, the level of demand is very high. Instead of playing with the number 25 on his back, he’s playing with the 125 they paid for him.
“He’s growing and needs to improve his finishing. He often reaches dangerous areas and struggles to relax in the final moment, make better assists, and lift his head to see his teammates.
“He’ll get there. I remember a lot when Vini Jr. arrived at Madrid, and two or three years later, he was a top-level player”, Mourinho said.
He has now scored in his last two matches for Real Madrid against Villarreal and Sevilla, taking his tally to two goals so far in the La Liga.
Diomande also became the youngest Real Madrid player in the 21st century to score and assist in the same La Liga match. At 19 years and 338 days, he breaks Jude Bellingham’s record of 20 years and 51 days.
Kylian Mbappe scored a brace, Arda Guler, and Yan Diomande added the other goals to lead Real Madrid to a comfortable victory over Sevilla.
Mourinho was pleased with the team’s performance ahead of next week’s clash with Barcelona at the Camp Nou Stadium.
“It was a good game globally for Real Madrid with many players at a high individual level. We controlled it from the first to the last minute and scored quality goals.
“We had a high percentage of possession, which is something that doesn’t always give you a real picture of the game, but today it justified the dominance we had against a good team, which we respected. It was a beautiful victory because we won, played well, and had many positive feelings”, he added.
The former Roma manager revealed that he is not thinking about the El Clasico clash against Barcelona on Sunday.
“There is Champions League to play first, and it’s the only game we are thinking about. I won’t spend even a minute thinking about our opponent in the championship next Sunday until Wednesday at 11 pm.
“I have changed some things while maintaining logic. There were signs in parts of the games that indicated things could work well. Meritocracy is abstract because there’s no way to quantify which 11 players deserve it the most.
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“Many people deserve to play, and today some stayed on the bench, later came on, and others didn’t leave the bench at all. For example, the one who scored the winning goal in Rome didn’t even play. We had more possession, more control of the game, created a lot, and got the ball to our wide players a lot. It was a very good game, a great game for Real Madrid”, Mourinho stated.
Mourinho concluded that the Champions League is a motivation for Vinicius Junior following his four-match ban for pulling the hair of an opponent against Villarreal.
“I don’t like doing it, but I do it because it’s an unavoidable situation. He’ll start on Wednesday, and the Champions is a way to keep him motivated so he’s not just training without playing.
“He’s fresh, and since he didn’t play today, he worked a lot on his fitness. Hopefully, things will go well for him as he deserves, and we need him. Leipzig isn’t the team that played poorly yesterday in Munich; it’s something else”, he concluded.
Real Madrid have won seven and lost two out of their first nine matches in La Liga to earn 21 points, six points behind leaders Barcelona.
The Los Blancos will face RB Leipzig in the Champions League on Wednesday, and they will slug it out with Barcelona in their next La Liga match on Sunday.
