Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media in the press room at the Al Nassr FC training complex prior to Real Madrid's semi-final clash with Valencia in the Spanish Super Cup (8pm CET). The coach expressed his thoughts as follows: "Winning trophies is important for this club. Winning the Super Cup last year boosted our confidence and our desire to fight. Hopefully the same thing can happen this time. We’re a bit tight going into it because they’re two games in a short space of time. We need to prepare well in training and put in a good performance against Valencia and try to return home with another trophy."
He added: "It was predictable that we wouldn't be at our best at this point in the season. Our training is going well. I was surprised by the Villarreal game - we looked a different team. We need to do the right things and our defensive side wasn't good. We have to work on that now. This team knows how to do that and do it better than they did against Villarreal. It’s really important to defend well because we have the required quality up front. We need a stronger defensive base than the one we had against Villarreal."
In the game vs Villarreal, Real Madrid, for the 1st time in history had a starting eleven with no Spanish players in it. While it became quickly a discussion in the media, the coach expressed that it was not something planned: "It was a mere coincidence that there were no Spaniards in the starting eleven against Villarreal. The backbone of this club is the Spanish footballers, but this is a universal club. We have Spaniards in the youth academy. Real Madrid has produced the most players in LaLiga and that was just a coincidence the other day".
The effects of the World Cup: "I don't see that. I'll have to assess it. Maybe some of them have been affected by the World Cup and we'll have to wait a bit. We’re still a bit hurt after the Villarreal defeat. Let's wait and see how the team responds in the Super Cup as it's a very important test for us".
Gattuso: "We've shared some nice times together because we won together and spent a lot of time together. Our relationship hasn't always been good, but I don't want to talk about personal relationships. We have to fight for every trophy because we always think about it. Now we’re so close to winning one and we’ll do everything we can to win it. The objective is to win the Super Cup and not to look beyond that”.
Milan players becoming coaches: “There’ve been a lot of coaches from when I played at Milan like Seedorf, Pirlo and Nesta. We’ve learnt a fair bit, but it was good experience. Each one added their own experience to each team. Gattuso’s teams play at high intensity and with a clear identity on the pitch”.
Defensive aspect: “It’s nothing new because I’ve already seen it. We’re a solid and compact block and it’s helped us be very successful. The defensive side is down to concentration and sacrifice”.
Planning: “The planning of the physical side isn’t as long now because there are so many games and not much time to rest. It has to be managed differently. The defeat isn’t because of tiredness from the World Cup but because we didn’t play well”.
Penalties: “We don’t work on them much because the players take penalties at the end of the training sessions. So I use this to assess who takes them well and who doesn’t. Sometimes it’s difficult to find five players who are willing to take a penalty because of the mental side of it”.
コメント