“It’s all a process.” Marc Cucurella said as he tried to calm the noise around Real Madrid's uneven opening under Jose Mourinho. The club already trail Barcelona by six points in La Liga, and they have lost to Real Betis and Atletico Madrid in their opening seven league fixtures. Cucurella, signed from Chelsea for €55 million (£46m), thinks it is too early to draw hard conclusions.
Cucurella's case for patience
His argument is built on timing, or more accurately the lack of it. “It’s not even been 10 games yet. There are things to improve, of course. We basically had no pre-season, while it's a new club for me. I have to adapt to my new team-mates and give my best so that the player you see with the national team is the same player with Real Madrid,” Cucurella told goal.com.
That lines up with his own numbers. He has made 6 La Liga appearances for Madrid, and his recent league form has been mixed, with the club going through a run of LWWLW. The start has not been ideal, but the evidence still points to a side that is settling rather than one that has already been defined.
The gap to Barcelona and the wider concern
Madrid are 4th in La Liga with 15 points from 7 games, while Barcelona have 21 from 7. That six-point gap is why the early pressure feels louder than the table position alone might suggest. Cucurella also told Europa Press, in comments translated from Spanish, that “perhaps the start has not been what we all expected” and that the assessment should come “at the end of the season”.
He is probably right to ask for patience. Six league appearances and no pre-season are thin conditions for judging a player or a new set-up, even at a club where the standard is relentless. The result is not a crisis, but it is a start that has left Madrid with work to do before the season settles down.
Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →
