José Mourinho took to the podium on Saturday to speak in support of Vinícius Jr., the forward set to sit out four matches after receiving a red card in the previous weekend's fixture against Villarreal. The four-match suspension stemmed from two fixtures for seizing Villarreal midfielder Nathan Saliba by the hair in a match Real Madrid won 1-0, and an additional two after disputing the official's decision on the incident.
In an interview with Xinhua before Sunday's La Liga home match against Sevilla, Mourinho described carving out a few minutes each day to spend with the player, expressing admiration for how Vinícius continued to approach his circumstances with resolve, and adding that, were their situations reversed, he was not sure he would have managed the same. He noted that his own instinct would have been to push for a transfer to a place where he felt valued, yet the player had remained at Real Madrid out of a deep attachment to the club.
When a reporter asked whether taking Vinícius off the pitch had swung the outcome of Real Madrid's 4-3 Champions League victory over Roma on Wednesday, the Portuguese coach disputed that interpretation. Three goals in the closing stages sealed a comeback for Madrid, with Endrick — introduced when Vinícius came off — contributing directly to the turnaround. Noting that five personnel changes had been made over the course of the match, Mourinho described substitutions as a routine feature of the game, and offered little indication of which players would start against Sevilla, pointing instead to a depth of options across the squad, with as many as 15 or 16 players he considered worthy of selection, not merely the 11 required.
Vinícius stated that La Liga's decision to impose a four-match domestic ban reached him with roughly two hours to spare before kick-off in the club's UEFA Champions League match against Roma, and that word of the suspension did not reach him until he was already at the ground. He noted that the governing body had the entire day to communicate the ban, yet the notification reached him only upon his arrival at the stadium, informing him that four La Liga fixtures would go ahead without his participation.
Observers noted that the prohibition arrived at a point widely viewed as inopportune. Vinícius also raised concerns about how disciplinary rules had been communicated to players, saying those affected had not been given adequate notice of the policy behind the ban, and added that the reasoning remained unclear to him. The regulation, it emerged, had only recently been introduced.
The player added that nobody on their side had been briefed about that particular amendment to the rules — even though representatives from LaLiga, or whichever authority holds responsibility for refereeing matters, do make regular visits to take the squad through any updates, that one point had simply never been passed on to them.
