Mourinho gives Oezil the nod

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho says Mesut Oezil will start at number 10 against Levante on Sunday rather than Kaka.

The La Liga side travel to sixth-placed Levante in what could prove a tricky assignment for the reigning champions, who trail league leaders Barcelona by eight points.

Mourinho confirmed the German would start in the playmaker role but admitted it was always difficult to leave out a quality player like Kaka.

“He (Kaka) helps the team when he is on the pitch. If he was a left back he would play almost every match but he is a ’10’,” Mourinho said.

“When he was playing more than Oezil you would ask about Oezil, now that it is other way around and you ask about Kaka. Tomorrow Oezil will play.”

Juan Ignacio Martinez’s Levante defeated Mourinho’s side 4-2 last season at the Ciutat de Valencia and the Portuguese coach knows how difficult they can be to break down.

“It is a difficult stadium, a difficult team, they have their style and I don’t think anybody can criticise their style because it’s is giving them results so nobody should criticise the style,” he said.

“You have to play all of them (types of teams), that’s how this is.

“You play against very different teams and the idea is to be stronger using our own system. But if we can’t then we need to adapt to the opponent’s way of playing.”