Jose Mourinho admitted he was disappointed to begin his Real Madrid career with a 0-0 draw at Real Mallorca on Sunday, citing poor finishing as the reason for his team’s failure.
Mourinho was typically calm in his first post-match press conference acknowledging Real were far from their best but emphasising that positives could be taken from the performance.
“One positive is that from a defensive point of view we didn’t have any problems,” explained Mourinho.
“Another positive is the enormous number of chances we created in the second half. The negative is obviously the result.
“It is important to defend well and score when you are not at your best and we are far from our best. We didn’t play well but we did enough to win. We had five or six chances but didn’t take any of them and I am disappointed about that. We were solid defensively and if we had scored we would have taken the three points.”
Argentine international Gonzalo Higuain was the main culprit missing three golden opportunities but Mourinho refused to point the finger.
“I am not a coach to criticise an individual for missing a chance or making a defensive mistake,” said the former Inter and Chelsea coach.
An international break means Mourinho’s next game is in a fortnight when Real host Osasuna in front of the demanding Santiago Bernabeu crowd.
Real trail champions Bar-celona, 3-0 winners at Racing Santander on Sunday, by two points putting more pressure on Mourinho’s first home match and the coach is irked that his players will now go away on international duty.
“We need time to work on things but we don’t have much time at the moment,” bemoaned Mourinho.
“There is nothing we can do about it.”
Captain Iker Casillas said Real had been unfortunate not to take the spoils in Mallorca.
“There are things to improve but aside from the result I like what I see from the team,” said Casillas.
“We tried to score and had good chances as well as being strong defensively. The ball just didn’t want to go in.”
Midfielder Xabi Alonso admitted the draw was disappointing and said it was important that Real didn’t get too worried about what rivals Barcelona, who won 3-0 at Racing Santander, are doing.
“We can’t get obsessed with Barcelona,” said Alonso.
“We just have to focus on ourselves. It is two points dropped because we had to win and we had more chances. We just have to improve for the next match against Osasuna.”