Ancelotti closes his three-year period of excellence at Real Madrid with the most difficult challenge

During dinner on July 17, 1994 Arrigo Sacchi approached Charles Ancelotti and jokingly told him: “Your first title on a bench (he made his debut as his assistant in the azzurra) It has been the World Cup. So he can only get worse.” And Carletto, laughing and smoking a cigar with the rest of the staff, replied: “It’s something I’ll try not to forget throughout my career.”

25 titles, 9 with Real Madrid

Two years before, Carlo became Sachi’s assistant in the national team. He was 33 when his “soccer dad” recruited him and two years later he won the ’94 World Cup against Brazil in Pasadena. The following season he came to the rescue of the team of which he was a tiffosi since he was a child, Reggiana, which was in Serie B. In his first year he was promoted to the team and from there he went to Parma. Today Carletto has 25 titles as a coach with the Juventus (1), Milan (8), Chelsea (3), PSG (1), Real Madrid (9) y Bayern (3).

They say that “the truth spreads at a snail’s pace and rumors spread with the speed of a hare.” That explains why Mbappé’s name splashes all over the front pages of the newspapers relating him to Real Madrid without there actually being news to report. But the only certainty is that the last season of Ancelotti’s three-year excellence in the white team begins, and probably the epilogue of him as a club coach. After Carletto He will try to come full circle by managing Brazil at the end of this season. The same Brazil that he defeated in the World Cup final as Sacchi’s assistant in his debut on the bench.

Courtois’ injury

It is, therefore, the last year in which we will be able to enjoy his chivalry and closeness, his witticism in the press rooms and his emotional intelligence in managing the group. Ancelotti has been able to relativize each setback to continue seeing the bottle half full and the latest example has been with the injury of Courtois at the last minute that the crusader has broken and he will lose the entire season. “We are sad on a personal level, it is the injury of an important player, but these things happen in football. But if we sign a goalkeeper, the starter is Lunin,” said the Italian at his first press conference. An attitude that will come in handy this last year at Real Madrid, where the team is orphaned in attack after the departure of Karim Benzema who, at 35, played everything against Saudi Arabia.

Madrid starts the season with a squad that is as complete as it is unbalanced. Beyond Courtois’s last injury, that will force him to sign a goalkeeper, be it De Gea, Bono or whoever, has an overcrowded midfield in which Carlo will have to manage the minutes and temper the egos of its midfielders: Tchouameni, Camavinga, Modric, Kroos, Valverde, Ceballos and Arda Güler. In point, however, the team is orphaned of references. He has marauders like Vinicius, Rodrygo or Brahim, but he suffers from a heavy weight. Because Joselu speaks another football language. Ancelotti’s Madrid deciphers football with the ball at their feet by thinking and reading the spaces, which optimizes the imbalance of their players. And Joselu is a siege battering ram, ‘to my Sabino who overwhelmed them’…

Jude Bellingham. EFE

Sin Mbappé, con Bellingham

The hypothetical incorporation of Mbappé, who is not expected until next summer, would crown an excellent squad. But his absence reveals a scoring anemia. In the preseason the team has generated a lot of football and few goals. And before that perspective Ancelotti anticipated changing the scheme to make profitable his new offensive resource: Jude Bellingham. But the Englishman is a swan, not a shark. A vegan at a barbecue.

The 4-3-3 has mutated into a 4-4-2 rhombus when it dominates or 4-3-1-2 if the rival throws crooks that in this preseason have left the white defense in a bad way. Eight goals in three games have fitted in with the new scheme and high pressure. The problem is that when the rival overcomes the defensive curtains, there is a steppe behind Kroos and Modric. Everything indicates that Carlo will bet on the 4-3-2-1 with medium pressure so as not to lose his place.

It will go from the excellence that has led him to win all possible titles in two seasons to a disturbing “transition”. He starts with Lunin in goal at San Mamés, an aristocratic setting where he will try to keep unblemished that statistic that says that in his last ten league debuts, including the five for Madrid, he has always won. Whether or not Mbappé arrives, it is a year to say goodbye to Ancelotti, his grandeur and the soccer aroma that exudes. Because after more than 30 years winning soccer titles, Carletto is already laughing at Janeiro.

2023-08-12 07:42:10
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