‘No gameplan and no ideas’ – Makelele slams Mourinho’s Madrid after derby defeat

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Ex-Real Madrid midfielder Claude Makelele did not hold back on his former team’s performance in their derby defeat to Atletico Madrid, saying they had “no gameplan and no ideas.”

Madrid slipped to a 2-1 loss against their cross-city rivals on Sunday, their second in the first seven games of their LaLiga campaign.

With defending champions Barcelona making a perfect start, Los Blancos are already six points off the title pace, and Makelele feels there are glaring issues in their side.

During Sunday’s game, Madrid only managed eight shots and 0.3 expected goals, compared to Atleti’s 18 attempts and 2.35 xG, though that latter figure was boosted by the penalty from which Alejandro Grimaldo opened the scoring early in the second half.

Dean Huijsen was sent off and conceded that spot-kick for denying Giuliano Simeone a clear goalscoring opportunity, though Madrid had been flat in attack even with 11 men on the pitch, only posting 0.16 xG and one shot on target in the first half.

And Makelele, who represented Madrid 145 times between 2000 and 2003, before working under Mourinho at Chelsea, was bemused by their lacklustre display.

“There is no understanding between the players, nor with the coach. Mourinho must talk to them,” he told ESPN.

“The team is weak, there is no gameplan and no clear ideas. There is nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing… Absolutely nothing. We must demand more from them.”

In stark contrast to Madrid’s stuttering performance, Atleti scored their second goal – via Jonathan David – at the end of an 18-pass move – the most for any goal scored by either team in a Madrid derby in LaLiga since at least 2005-06.

Afterwards, Mourinho said “the story of the game” was an inept refereeing performance from Ortiz Arias, arguing both Lee Kang-in and Cristian Romero should have seen red for Atleti, the former for a high challenge on Federico Valverde and the latter for treading on Jude Bellingham.

Mourinho brought printed images of both incidents to his post-match press conference, prompting Atleti to hit back on social media, posting: “Stop referee harassment now.”

— Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) September 21, 2026

But Makelele was not interested in playing the blame game, saying: “The problem is not the referee; there is an obvious deficiency in the team.” 

After the extended international break, Madrid host Villarreal in LaLiga on October 10, before visiting Roma in the Champions League four days later.

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