(Mou looks like he’s ready to jump out of an airplane, no?)

Following today’s training session, José Mourinho revealed his call-up of 18 players for tomorrow’s Copa del Rey game against Murcia, including two canteranos, goalkeeper Jesús Fernández and midfielder Álex Fernández (no relation though!).  The other big news was that Lass made his return, and that Pepe, Carvalho, Özil and Khedira will be rested.

Goalkeepers: Casillas, Adán, Jesús.
Defenders: Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Albiol.
Midfielders: Granero, Lass, Xabi Alonso, Diarra, Pedro León, Di María, Canales, Álex.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Higuaín, Benzema.

Only four defenders?  That’s kind of scary!

In his press conference later on, Mou gave us most of the starting line-up.

He started out by listing some names – Casillas, Arbeloa, Sergio Ramos, Albiol, Marcelo, Canales, Benzema – then counted how many that was (seven) so he said, “four more.”  Later on, in declarations about his players, he said Pedro León would start.  And as he was leaving the press conference, he said, “Granero, nine.”  You’ll notice that there are a lot of Spaniards in the line-up, because “the Copa del Rey should be more important for the Spaniards.”  Video here!

Other soundbites:

– I would like to see the Bernabéu a bit more enthusiastic.  If they want it, we’ll win.

– this is the most important game of the season, because you could lose a competition.

– my philosophy is that competitions are won with the entire squad, not a team… the starters of today can be the substitutes of tomorrow.

– we have, without spending a euro, two fantastic winter signings: Gago and Kaká [what a nice thing to say!].

I love him!

Bonus Benzema, following the great examples of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos: