Ancelotti: “It doesn’t bother me that they say we play against”

Carlo Ancelotti is enjoying the moment his team is going through and he doesn’t mind the criticism that may rain down on him for not dominating through possession. “I respect all facets of football. If one only thinks of possession as a weapon to win the game, perfect. I respect that. How I respect the way Cádiz played against us, because it got us into difficulties. The system and the perfect game do not exist. If I play against I’m not going to win every game and if I play in possession neither. If one day I defend, we are not defensive. We are the team that has scored the most goals in the League. And that they say we play against, it doesn’t bother me. Because it is not easy to play against, we play against with four or five goals. We don’t do long passes. And we also arrived with six players in the rival area. It’s not easy to play like this. If they tell me that we play against, I’m delighted”, proclaimed the Real Madrid coach on the eve of the final of the Spanish Super Cup against Athletic.

An appointment to which Real Madrid arrives after a highly demanding classic and with doubts about the state of some footballers to face a rival that the whites have well studied because they measured the lions twice during the past month of December . “The team has recovered well. We have no problem in the physical aspect. We have two doubts that are Alaba and Asensio. We have to evaluate in the afternoon. The plan is to win the match. We have to evaluate the opposing team, we know each other very well because we have played twice in a month. They were two very even games and it will be the same tomorrow. Athletic enjoys many records: defensive solidity, good organization, speed in front and skill from set pieces. The plan is different from that of the semifinal because Athletic has different registers to Barça, “he said.

Ancelotti ruled out that Dani Carvajal’s positive for covid has affected his team. «There is no fear, we are used to this happening, it happens in the family, at work… I feel sorry for Carvajal because he had returned, but he is fine. He has a little cold and nothing more. We have to wait for him,” he said of the right-back.

A “skin friendship” with Marcelino

He praised Marcelino García Toral, with whom he has good chemistry. “We don’t know each other very well, but it’s a friendship we’ve enjoyed over time. I’ve seen a photo that we played as rivals in ’87 and I didn’t remember. It’s a skin friendship. Sometimes it happens that there are people you don’t know but you feel something special when you meet them. He does it very well, he controls the small details very well, his teams are very organized from the beginning to the end. He saw himself against Atlético, his team never gives up”, he pointed out about the Athletic coach.

He predicted an even match on Sunday. “The two December games were different. More chances for Athletic in the first leg and fewer in the second leg. We improved the defensive aspect in the second leg, where two of us overtook early,” Ancelotti explained, reassuring him of the experience of his players when it comes to playing finals, despite admitting that his team are not at the highest performance peak of the course. “Our best moment was before Christmas, against Atlético. But we are fine and the personality of the team in these games leaves me calm. This leaves me calm, because I know the ability of the players in these matches. My work is easy because I don’t have to put motivation or concentration, because they have it. The less you touch, the better,” he said.

He spoke of Vinicius, whom he encourages to enter more inside to make superiority with Benzema. «We can push Vinicius to play inside and help Benzema. Against Valencia, like this, he also scored. He is a player who can enjoy going inside without the ball, not just dribbling outside,” he said of the Brazilian. He finally stopped at the figure of the French striker, who stands out as having more weight in the locker room than ever. “It hasn’t changed. Maintains humility. They have changed how others see him. They see him stronger, more mature, with more personality, more of a leader,” he argued.