Ancelotti’s classic: a man who doesn’t lose sleep

No game or team keeps Carlo Ancelotti up at night, as he himself highlighted yesterday in his press conference in Valdebebas. Since this summer, after winning the European Super Cup against Atalanta, the Italian is the coach with the most titles in the history of Real Madrid (14) along with Miguel Muñoz. At 65 years old, he has seen them in all colors. Today will be his 17th classic and he has won the last four. Today’s player faces it with the utmost tranquility in a week that smelled like singeing for the whites when on Tuesday the team retired at half-time with a 0-2 draw against Borussia Dortmund with the Bernabéu whistling on some players who had only been there for four months and They had half won the double: League and Champions League.

Carlo Ancelotti continues to be that calm man who is quite hesitant to receive criticism, which very often aggravates the first ones that are poorly given. At this point he believes he has little to prove and even less when he maintains a strong complicity with Florentino Pérez, perhaps like no other coach has had with the white club’s leader.

We are very satisfied with Kylian Mbappé. “He knows what he has to do.”

Madrid has always been a team much more of players than coaches, without a defined style except for winning and sweating the shirt until the last breath and Ancelotti fits well into that soft-handed profile that prioritizes the talent of its stars rather than others. the schemes.

Asked several times about Barcelona’s good form and if the Blaugrana are favorites, Ancelotti repeated that “they are a very brave team, but no one keeps me up at night. In a classic there is no favorite.”

For the coach, the key is to improve defensive solidity, as he has conceded a lot in almost every game, but if there is one thing he does not doubt, it is the commitment of his stars. “We are satisfied with Mbappé, who already knows what he has to do.” Or Vinícius, “no one doubts that this Monday will be the Ballon d’Or.” Or from Bellingham: “Last year we had lost an important forward like Benzema and we had to replace him with goals from Jude, Brahim and Joselu. Now we have a striker who can score 35 or 40 goals.” Asked if he was preparing anything for today, he was brief: “I thought of something.”