It was always coming. It was just a question of when, and how, rather than if.

In the end, José Mourinho’s first rant against refereeing standards—complete with printouts and allusions to a grand conspiracy theory against Real Madrid—arrived in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s Madrid derby.

The context and the props change—to be fair to Mourinho, it can’t have been easy grappling with the printer and guest Wi-Fi at the Metropolitano—but the strategy stays the same: lose and blame someone else.

It’s the tried and tested approach from Mourinho. But what used to be a three-season process of highs and lows is now being speed run. After Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Roma and Fenerbahçe, he’s learned to jump from ‘honeymoon period’ straight into ‘unhappy marriage’.

“If ‘they’ leave us in peace, and let us compete on an even playing field, there’s a long way left,” Mourinho told reporters, when asked if his team could still fight for the title.

It’s a long way from when he told El Chiringuito “I’m more mature now, less emotional, more controlled,” just last month.

Madrid’s Problems Are Obvious

Seven La Liga matches and little more than 100 days into the job, and the pressure is already building on Mourinho. The sparkling form of Kylian Mbappé and a vast disparity in resources have been enough to blast through most of what has been put in front of Real Madrid so far, but they have fallen at the first two major hurdles.

Madrid did not take their chances in a frustrating 1–0 defeat to Real Betis, despite posting a far superior xG at La Cartuja, and then wilted away in the heat against Atlético.

Mourinho can rail against individual refereeing decisions—he may even have a point in some cases—but the bigger problems are stark.

Vinícius Júnior has only one goal in 625 minutes and is still running into exactly the same space occupied by Mbappé with such regularity that it’s starting to look like a bit.

The lack of a deep-lying midfield controller is still the Rodri-shaped elephant in the room, leading to an uneasy lack of both control and creativity behind the forwards. Madrid have surrendered possession in three of their last four matches in all competitions (Atlético, Elche and Inter) and have not ‘won’ a second half in any of their last five outings.

On top of all that, the defense has kept just one clean sheet all season—at home to newly promoted Málaga.

None of these things are refereeing conspiracies, but failures in management and roster planning.

Clásico Response Will Be Pivotal

At the first international break, Madrid sit six points behind a rampant Barcelona, whose lead at the top of La Liga is already beginning to look unassailable. Madrid were not supposed to be this far behind this early, but Barça have been sensational.

The first Clásico of the season is rearing up on the horizon, and is scheduled at an intriguing juncture on Oct. 25. Barça, so far virtually untested, will enter the fixture after away trips to Real Betis and Paris Saint-Germain.

Madrid are zero for two in difficult away games this season, but If Mourinho can take advantage of Barça’s potentially aching legs and mastermind an upset against his old rivals at Camp Nou, the title race will be back on. Lose, and that might really be it already for Los Blancos.

Mourinho’s presence alone brings a box-office factor to the Clásico, making next month’s clash the kind of cancel-your-plans, appointment viewing that it hasn’t been for some time. However, most neutrals will be watching as much for the prospect of a Mourinho meltdown as much as for the chance to see some brilliant soccer.

Barcelona and Real Madrid in La Liga 2026–27

The Pressure Is On

When Florentino Pérez reappointed Mourinho it was a decision laced with the powerful intoxicant that is nostalgia.

After the drab failed experiments of the post-Ancelotti period, Pérez gambled on re-harnessing the explosive brilliance of Mourinho who once delivered the club’s best-ever La Liga season and disrupted Pep Guardiola and Barcelona’s dominance. The president also needed a force of personality big enough to coral and, if needed, cow a locker room that was violently out of control.

But Mourinho in 2026 is not the same as Mourinho in 2010. The game has changed and the 63-year-old is no longer at the vanguard of tactical innovation and motivation. Mourinho visibly prickled at a question towards the end of his Netflix docuseries about why he doesn’t win big trophies anymore. The answer is pretty obvious to anyone who has watched the game in the last 15 years.

What he remains world class at is creating an ‘us vs. them’ mentality in his teams—drawing focus towards perceived enemies within and without. However, that schtick rankled with many during his first spell at Real Madrid, where the expectation is to win and do it with class.

The locker room appears to be on side, for now, but difficult decisions over team selections will soon need to be made and the old ghosts from last season’s chaos linger. When the going gets really tough in the coming weeks, will we see a sacred cow sacrificed? Who might be this generation’s Iker Casillas?

Boos and whistles are not uncommon at the Bernabéu this season and there is a growing impatience among the fanbase, who have not seen any tangible improvement on the team that ended the last two seasons trophy-free.

Pérez is the ultimate decision maker at the club and the 79-year-old is no stranger to anti-Madrid conspiracy theories himself. He is also 100% results driven. If things don’t improve, his sentimentality for a half-remembered era will soon fade.

It was just two days after Mourinho’s last Madrid derby back in 2013 that Pérez announced that the club and Mourinho would part ways. The defeat 13 years on, and the postgame fallout, show how Mourinho still belongs to the past.