Pepe with Casillas... on the bench

José Mourinho is a man who does not hesitate to get his own back. When players have their ups and downs with the coach or transmit some kind of message of revolt they are almost always relegated to the substitute's bench. Cristiano Ronaldo had his turn in the dugout and so did Sergio Ramos.
Although Pepe has fallen out of favour in defence in place of Raphael Varane, he seems the likely replacement for the injured Ramos at centre-back for the game against Málaga. However, there could be a chance the player ends up on the bench in the wake of his defence of Iker Casillas.
Until recently Pepe was one of the players who unconditionally backed Mourinho as a manager, coming to his defence on several occasions during the coach's three-year spell in charge.
Nevertheless, the defender and coach have had their fare share of run-ins this season. Mourinho did not like the fact that the player had an operation on his ankle straight after coming back from the Christmas break. Then Varane burst onto the scene, leading to the replacement of the Portuguese centre-back, who had been part of the furniture in the back-four until that time.
'The Special One' also fought tooth and nail for Pepe. He worked hard to persuade the club to offer his fellow countryman a new contract and defended all the player's controversial incidents on the pitch, including his famous stamp on Leo Messi.