Mourinho must heal Real’s rifts: Salgado

Dubai, Jan 20 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Manager Jose Mourinho must repair his frayed relationships with the Real Madrid squad if the team are to have any hope of rescuing their season, former right-back Michel Salgado said Sunday.

Real are a distant third in La Liga, 18 points adrift of leaders and fierce rivals Barcelona, and Salgado said the only priority now was not the league, which is “over”, but hopes of Champions League success.

“If you do want to win it, if you do want to have a chance, the first thing you have to do is try at least to fix the problems you’ve got in the dressing room,” Salgado said.

“Mourinho I think has to step in, have a meeting with the players and try to fix all the problems they’ve got, sort out all the troubles.”

Salgado suggested Mourinho’s top priority should be to end his feud with goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas, who has been dropped for some recent games in favour of Adrian Adan. Mourinho has also reportedly fought with star forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

“The league is over. Real are not going to win it because the gap is too much. The only chance is hampions League and the King’s Cup,” Salgado added.

Real play Valencia away in the league Sunday, and face the same opposition in the second leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal Wednesday, with a 2-0 lead from the first leg.

Salgado played 254 times for Real from 1999 to 2009, winning La Liga four times and the Champions League twice.

He also earned 53 caps for Spain before retiring at the end of last season, and now works in Dubai, where he visited Guus Hiddink’s Anzhi Makhachkala in winter training Sunday.

—IANS/RIA Novosti

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IANS 2013-01-20 19:32:04