Real Madrid's Midfield Dilemma: Can Thiago Pitarch Break Through?
Real Madrid spent the summer staring at the same question from every angle: do they actually have enough in midfield?
They knew the doubt was real. Their pursuit of Rodri was the clearest admission. When that move collapsed, the club doubled down on what was already in-house, leaning harder on Bernardo Silva, whose role in white has edged away from pure playmaker and closer to an all-purpose midfielder compared to his days at City.
Then the season started. The old problems walked straight back through the door.
Inter expose the fault line
Spanish daily AS didn’t need a second viewing of the Inter game to underline it. Madrid struggled to get any grip on the match. Possession slipped through them, control never really arrived.
Federico Valverde spelled out the plan afterwards: José Mourinho had demanded calm, more passes, a slower rhythm. Madrid were supposed to put a foot on the ball and dictate. It simply never materialised.
This isn’t a new crack in the structure. It’s a fault line that runs back into last season.
Back then, Álvaro Arbeloa helped patch things together with a surprise solution from the academy. Thiago Pitarch, still officially a Castilla player at the time, forced his way into the first-team rotation. He didn’t just make up the numbers either. He logged more than 800 minutes, started both legs against City in the Champions League round of 16 and the first leg of the quarter-final against Bayern. A kid from the reserves holding his own on the biggest stage.
Now his situation is far less clear.
Stuck between two squads
This summer, a departure was seriously on the table. Then pre-season bit back. An injury at the start of the summer killed off any chance of a move and left Pitarch in limbo: training with the first team, registered with the reserves because there was no room in the senior squad list.
On paper, he’s still a first-teamer. His new contract says so. Inside Valdebebas, everyone treats him as such. But that status leads to the hardest part of all at Real Madrid: turning potential and paperwork into actual minutes.
The tactical board doesn’t help him. Mourinho has nailed down a 4-2-3-1, and that system chains Pitarch to the double pivot. It’s the most crowded room in the house. There, he has to fight his way past Valverde, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga and Bernardo Silva.
Five players. One position group. On the depth chart, Thiago sits fifth out of five.
What he does have is the memory of last season’s performances and a temperament that never seemed to shrink under the weight of the Madrid shirt. He played with a calm that belied his age, with a confidence that suggested he belonged.
Mourinho’s challenge
Recently, Mourinho has barely used him. The injury cost Thiago rhythm and sharpness, and at this level that’s enough to push you to the fringes. But the coach hasn’t forgotten what he saw last year, nor what he thinks is coming.
Mourinho has been clear, even blunt, about how he views the youngster: “He is not a player to feature in the Castilla category, but rather a first-team player and I like him a lot. He has qualities that I like very much, and when he is fully fit he will be part of the group, and then there will be minutes waiting for him to play, as he has very high quality.”
The message is encouraging, but it comes with a demand.
Mourinho wants Pitarch to toughen up physically, especially to meet the defensive intensity he insists on from his midfielders. And he has told the player that to his face: “The only thing I tell him is that his leg muscles are like mine, and he needs to add two kilograms there through work.”
That’s the crossroads for Thiago Pitarch. Madrid’s midfield still looks short of control, the coach still sees him as a first-team player, yet the path to the pitch runs through the gym, the training ground and a crowded depth chart. If he can power his way through that blockade, the next time Madrid ask whether they need another midfielder, the answer might already be standing in their own dressing room.
