Stars heap praise on Real Madrid boss José Mourinho

Bernabéu legend Zinedine Zidane and new signing Ricardo Carvalho have heaped praise on new Real Madrid manager José Mourinho.

Mourinho’s tenure at the Santiago Bernabéu got off to a stuttering start as his side limped to a goalless draw at Mallorca on the opening day of the season.

But centre-back Carvalho, who joined Real this summer and has worked with the Portuguese coach at both Chelsea and Porto, has declared the 47-year-old manager to be the best in the world and believes his side deserved to win their opening fixture.

“I have known Jose Mourinho for many years now, which has become very helpful to me because I know the way he works perfectly well,” said Carvalho. “He is the best coach in the world, a coach who knows exactly what has to be done. I feel very integrated at Real Madrid; the Club is exactly how I expected it to be.

“We had many opportunities to score against Mallorca, but we didn’t. Our defence played with great confidence, but it was a shame we didn’t capitalise on any of our chances to score. That was the only thing we failed to do during the match.

He added: “Normally, we would have scored one or two goals and we would have won the game. We played well in defence and in attack we had many opportunities to win. We are going to give our best performance to win against Osasuna on Saturday in order to earn our first victory in the season.”

Meanwhile, Zidane, who scored 49 goals in 225 appearances for Los Blancos, believes bringing Mourinho to the Bernabéu was “the best move Real Madrid could make”.

“He brings what the team was lacking,” said Zidane, 38. “It was the right move. I am sure Real Madrid will go on to do great things and win titles. Signing Mourinho was the best move Real Madrid could make.”