Mourinho lauds Granero's work rate

Posted Wednesday, March 09, 2011 by ESPN

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has praised Esteban Granero as the most hardworking player at the club.

Granero, started his career on the youth ranks of Real but having failed to break into the first team, left the club to join fellow La Liga outfit Getafe in 2007.

As with most of the young players that are allowed to leave the club, Real included a buy-back clause in the transfer deal, and after Granero impressed in his two seasons at Getafe, the Spanish giants exercised that option and brought the midfielder back to the Santiago Bernabeu.

While Granero managed to play a signficant amount of matches last season, his time on the field has been limited under Mourinho this year, as he struggles to get a game with many big name players at Real all competing for spots.

His coach, however, has praised Granero for this work ethic, and expressed his pain at not being able to reward his player's training ground performances.

Speaking in an interview on Real's television channel, Mourinho revealed: "It pained me to leave Granero in the stands against Real Sociedad because nobody works as much as he does."

"He is physically fit, intelligent and has a great heart. He always wants to help the team."

While Real this season have regularly played with two wide attackers supporting a central striker, Granero is more suited playing in an attacking central role.

Mourinho has since suggested that it is this tactical setup that does not allow Granero more game time.

"Granero's natural postion is in a 4-4-2 system within a diamond schematic. There is no one better at Real Madrid to play in that position."

The Spaniard did however manage to start Real's most recent La Liga encounter against Racing Santander and put in an encouraging performance in a 3-1 win.

With the fixture list starting to pile up as the season reaches it climax, and Real still competing for silverware on three fronts, Granero will be hoping his manager will be able to reward his endeavour with more appearances on the pitch.