Khedira, a player during Mourinho's time at Real Madrid, revealed that the Portuguese coach was obsessed with Messi back then.
Mourinho's first stint as manager of Real Madrid lasted from 2010 to 2013. In their rivalry with Barcelona, Real Madrid won the Copa del Rey in 2011 and La Liga a year later, briefly interrupting Guardiola's reign.
But whenever Real Madrid faced Barcelona, Mourinho spent most of his time racking his brains trying to figure out how to stop Messi. In a Netflix documentary of the same name, Mourinho admitted that he often suffered from insomnia trying to deal with the Argentine.
Sami Khedira, the former Real Madrid midfielder who has now returned to the Bernabéu as Mourinho's assistant, recalled: "It was interesting to prepare for El Clásico because we only spent two minutes discussing Barcelona and then 40 minutes discussing Messi."
“He prepared for every single detail. He adjusted the positions of some players, sometimes playing Pepe Rodriguez in the number 6 position, sometimes Sergio Ramos. The most crucial question was always – ‘How can we stop Messi?’”
Mourinho said in the documentary: "I had a terrible headache at the time. 'How can we stop him?' From the first El Clásico, I realized that if we played the same way, it was impossible to be better than them."
“To beat them, we have to be different on and off the pitch. In football, we are rivals because we compete for the same trophies, the same league, the same Champions League. I think that’s a good thing.”
Barcelona won their first El Clásico under Mourinho's management at Camp Nou with a score of 5-0. The second leg at the Bernabéu ended in a 1-1 draw. Barcelona emerged victorious in the Champions League semi-finals, while Real Madrid defeated their arch-rivals in the Copa del Rey final.
Left-back Marcelo explained the change in mentality that Mourinho instilled in the team. He said, "José treats every game like a final. He changed our mindset, he got into our heads. We started playing those games with a do-or-die attitude, like we had to win."
This attitude also led to a conflict between Mourinho and captain Casillas. Mourinho discovered that Casillas had extended an olive branch to Barcelona midfielder Xavi in an effort to maintain peaceful relations among his Spanish national team teammates – Spain had just won the 2008 European Championship, the 2010 World Cup, and the 2012 European Championship, and was in one of its most glorious periods in history.
But Mourinho didn't care about such formalities; he only demanded that his Real Madrid players give their all in the fierce battle against Barcelona. He accused Casillas of being a traitor at the time.
Mourinho revealed that he agreed to succeed Ferguson as manager of Manchester United in 2013. In the documentary, he said: "I have always said that in any situation, if you want to express your position and get straight to the point, don't go to the little guys, go to the big guys."
"There are some things I can't accept, and I never will. When someone disrespects me, that's a problem. I've said it before: 'This is Barcelona versus Real Madrid. When you're with the national team, you can kiss them all you want. But not now. This is war.'"
