Real Madrid's José Mourinho: "A Month Ago, Kaká Was A Disaster...Now He's The Best In The World"

In his habitual daily press conference, Real Madrid coach José Mourinho expressed his pleasure, both with Brazilian superstar Kaká's great form, and President Florentino Pérez's leadership. With respect to Kaká, however, he tried to temper some of the excitement that has been running up and down the Castellana in recent days:

"A month ago, Kaká was a disaster and now he's the best player in the world," he said. "I don't like that. Kaká is fantastic, but he has gone through some difficult times. He practically wasn't a starter, and wer have to procede calmly because we want him to play at a high level. It's important the he feels good when he's on the pitch, so he's healthy, strong, and joyful. If he's not 100%, then it'd be better for him not to start tomorrow's match." Source: Marca.com

He also speculated a little bit about Kaká's spot in the starting XI next to Mesut Özil, the young German phenom: he characterized his decision to start the two playmaking midfielders next to each other as a necessity because, "Both Mesut Ozil and Kaká want the ball, have a high level, and the team needed a calming presence, to have control of the game, to get their confidence back, and I liked the way both players responded."

This seems like a smart move to me. Madrid looked a little bland, out of ideas so to speak, in the games leading up to the drubbing of Rayo Vallecano. The Kaká-Özil pairing worked wonderfully, creating chance after chance, and the team never really looked back.

He also had some choice words for madridistas in reference to semi-embattled President Florentino Pérez, and the Assembly that he called last week:

"Here, there's only one governing theory: I was particularly happy to read what some of the veterans said [yesterday], that the culture of this club is to sweat, to fight until the last breath for results," he said. "That made me very happy because my own philosophy is close to the philosophy that these great figures professed. I'm not surprised by what the President said because I know what he wants. Real Madrid might be able to have a better coach than Mourinho; but it can't have a better President than Florentino."

While it's not shocking that Mourinho is happy with Florentino's leadership (after all, Florentino has backed him at every possible turn), it does seem to me that he's happy, and excited to be part of this project. Mourinho is famous for getting bored with a place, an organization, and bolting as soon as he can; I really don't think that's what's going to happen here.

But hey, what do I know?