Champions League: Astute Ancelotti has the Answers – He Now Needs Reinforcement

Penny for the thoughts of the man who is arguably the greatest manager still involved in the game today.

For if Carlo Ancelotti does read or listen to some of what has been written and said over the last few weeks, he can probably afford himself a wry smile.

Looking at the La Liga table, you can see his Real Madrid team in second place – six points off the top but with a game in hand on leaders Barcelona.

However, had you just picked up a paper or gone online and read/heard the ‘noise’ in recent weeks, you could be forgiven for thinking the champions of Europe and champions of Spain are in crisis.

Some crisis!

Even their poor form in the Champions League, where the new-look format is diluting the quality, doesn’t make as grim reading as you’d be led to believe.

In fact, it gives bigger clubs like Real even more chance to bounce back.

Two wins and two defeats from their opening four games may be well below their usual standard but would you really bet against them qualifying for the last 16?

I certainly wouldn’t back against them at home or abroad.

So, what key issues must Ancelotti address to get his team back on track.

Well, getting some key players back and avoiding any more injuries during the final international break of 2024 will help.

Already without Dani Carvajal for the season, Los Blancos lost Edder Militao to a cruel anterior cruciate ligament injury on Saturday – a game in which Lucas Vazquez and Rodrygo Goes were also forced off.

Meanwhile forward Rodrygo has damaged his right hamstring, an injury which he has just returned from, and is expected to be out for between a month and six weeks.

With no established right back, and David Alaba’s return still uncertain, Ancelotti is currently down to Jesus Vallejo, Antonio Rudiger and reserve defender Raul Asencio as his only centre back options.

The only crisis at Real, realistically, is an injury crisis.

At least they will hope to keep Kylian Mbappe fit – the French captain made an easy scapegoat in some quarters for the team’s difficult spell –  after he was left out of the French squad this week as a precaution, so soon after returning from a muscular injury.

For all the facile accusations, his performances have not been bad.

Incidentally, it does appear far from a coincidence that all these player injuries – and serious ones at that – have come due to burn out and too much football.

Ancelotti called the now retired Toni Kroos “irreplaceable” and he wasn’t replaced: there is no midfielder who can do what he does, no true central midfielder to bring the ball out.

Aurélien Tchouaméni has also been made a scapegoat as shapes have changed.

England starlet Jude Bellingham scored more than 20 goals last season, an improvised role turning out to be a perfect fit, but has failed to recapture that form thus far in this campaign.

Yet Ancelotti will motor on. He has seen it all before.

Although the line between success and failure is often fine, Madrid have a happy habit of falling on just the right side of it.

That may well again even if, given their injuries, a repeat of last season’s double is unlikely.

   

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