José Mourinho Tactics At SL Benfica 2025/2026: Can The Special One Restore Real Madrid? – Tactical Analysis

It has been an interesting season for José Mourinho at SL Benfica. 

The Portuguese club is well behind league leaders FC Porto, which means they will fail to win the league once again. 

They have only won the domestic title once since the 2018/2019 season, and it looks like Mourinho is now on his way out the door. 

Real Madrid have gone trophy-less this season and, after a lot of turmoil inside the club, are calling on the services of 63-year-old Mourinho to steady the ship.  

This would be his second stint at Real Madrid after having a lot of success from 2010-2013. 

While a third-place finish doesn’t look good on paper, Benfica have actually gone unbeaten in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. 

Mourinho took over at the club on September 18th, 2025, and has compiled a 25-10-7 record. 

In his last stint at Real Madrid, he averaged 2.3 points per match and had the highest win rate of his career at 71.91%. 

In the modern footballing world where everyone is obsessed with control, Mourinho has consistently gone against the grain, establishing himself as the best low-block, counterattacking coach of this generation. 

In this tactical analysis, we will take a look at Mourinho’s in-possession and out-of-possession tactics at Benfica, along with how he might set up his team at Real Madrid. 

José Mourinho In-Possession Tactics

José Mourinho at Benfica didn’t really change much from what he traditionally does. 

Of course, when they played lower-tier teams, they would build out of the back and try to tilt the field on their opponents. 

What you typically saw from Mourinho’s Benfica was a standard 3-2-5 build up with one of the full-backs dropping into the back line with the other pushing up to provide the width.

However, when they played teams at their level or better, they rarely held over 50% possession. 

It was a typical route, one football trying to play the ball long through their big striker, Vangelis Pavlidis, allowing him to go win aerial duels and set Benfica up to win second balls. 

The biggest emphasis for Mourinho this past season was not on playing through the middle and hitting opponents quickly down the flanks. 

Mourinho is not interested in playing short passes through opponents, but instead looks to aggressively play balls in behind or switch the play to create overloads.

The lone goal he scored against Real Madrid in the knockout stage is a good example of that. 

Fredrik Aursnes switches the play to the opposite side of the pitch. 

After a couple of passes, Pavlidis was able to find Rafa Silva for the goal. 

Mourinho likes to create passing triangles out wide to set up chances with crosses. 

In the Portuguese Primeira Liga this season, Benfica have averaged 5.3 accurate crosses per 90 minutes, the highest rate in the league. 

Here, you can see them set up a triangle out wide against Real Madrid to set up a wide-open cross into the box. 

Rarely did teams allow Benfica to hit them quickly in transition, so they were more often than not forced to build out from the back. 

However, when they did break out in transition, Mourinho always had them hit the opponent as quickly as possible. 

Here, against Sporting CP, they won the ball in the middle of the pitch and launched a counterattack. 

They used their 4v3 advantage to hit a cross to the back post to set up one of their most dangerous chances of the match.

José Mourinho Out-Of-Possession Tactics

Benfica had one of the worst starts to the Champions League phase that they possibly could have.

They lost their first four matches, but defensively, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. 

Benfica rebounded to pitch clean sheets against Ajax and Napoli, and after it was all said and done, they only allowed 12.1 non-penalty expected goals in 10 matches. 

A lot of that had to do with their massive improvements in defending in a low block. 

Mourinho typically had his team defend in a 5-3-2, which was mainly what Real Madrid defended this season. 

You can see just how compact they are when they do fall back into a low block, which is very typical of a Mourinho-coached team. 

Benfica were a really effective pressing team domestically, winning possession in the final third 6.0 times per 90 minutes, which led the league.

However, in the Champions League, Benfica had a PPDA of 14.1 and averaged 8.0 high turnovers per 90 minutes, which was average compared to most teams in the competition. 

Domestically, Benfica were one of the best defensive teams in the league under Mourinho this season, conceding only 0.80 xG per 90 minutes since he took over. 

If that translates to Real Madrid, they will be in a good position, given the insane amount of talent across the pitch. 

How Would José Mourinho Set Up Real Madrid? 

Real Madrid tried to establish a tactical identity with Xabi Alonso this season, but the players did not take it kindly. 

In the past, Real Madrid had success with Carlo Ancelotti basically playing tactic-less football. 

They would rely on their individual talent and mainly transition to beat everyone in their path.