This is a "Morata deserves to start ahead of Benzema" take. I'm sorry but Rodrygo has Arsenal/Tottenham written all over him.
🎙️| Carlo Ancelotti: “There is no problem with our attack, we had scored five at Anfield.”— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) March 4, 2023 🎙️| Carlo Ancelotti: “We’ve scored the most goals in La Liga, we don't need a top striker.” #rmalive— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) March 4, 2023
The expectation is that the team keeps repeating that Benzema is the best in the world every step they make, but the coach is supposed to poke holes in the team and say we lack quality? You can't demand "we are the best!" attitude on Monday and ask for something else on Saturday. Had Benzema scored a couple goals the discussion would be "he's irreplaceable! THE BEST!", not that we needed to look into the future. Carlo is doing everything right here.
Carlo is saying whatever the club wants him to say. He is a yes man who won't rock the boat, Carlo is a placeholder and both sides are fully aware of this. Take it all with a grain of salt.
Absolutely he is. I'm speaking strictly about his PR, not Ancelotti the coach. He isn't here for the long haul, keeping that seat warm for Raul or Xabi would be my guess.
I'd rather have Carlo than somebody like Mourinho or Schuster that was constantly creating issues in press conferences. That feeling, hoping nothing serious would happen is not something I'm missing.
Saying that we don't need another striker is one thing (he can't do anything about it at this point), but saying we don't have any attacking issues after we sh!t the bed at home vs a 10-man Atletico and a below-ordinary Barcelona is Xavi-level delusional talk. Oh but it's just the yes-man rhetoric..truth is Carlo legitimately believes there is nothing wrong with our offensive system and that shows on the pitch. If it wasn't for Mariano's injury, Alvaro Rodriguez would still be on the "monitoring" list with 0 minutes.
I’ve got a feeling Carlo is going to retire from club football this summer or next and that Zidane comes back to replace him. And when Zidane has had enough 2 or 3 years after that and needs a break, Carlo comes out of retirement to replace him .
Here's the truth though. Zidane left saying he thought this team didn't have any future and Carlo won a double with it. If we're being honest, Zidane seemed more exhausted and done with it all than Carlo ever has and he's got decades on him.
Everything you say about Zidane has to be taken with a good pinch of salt though my guy. I’ll be welcoming Zidane back with open arms if he wants to return.
I don't know if CDR alone can save his job, CL for sure would do it. I know people will say after last season he's earned blah blah blah. But this is sort of his MO. He has a great first season where the locker room loves him. But eventually the lack of tactics/fresh ideas set in and the lax training manifest themselves in the results. We ended up doing the same thing in 14/15, hopeless crosses into the box, no identity, nothing that makes you think the following season will be different. I know people will blame the club, we've been thrifty, but I think most clubs would trade their top 10 guys for our top 10.
The irony here is that in 14/15 Florentino sold Casemiro and left Carlo thin in midfield and especially at DM. Who thought he could make the same mistake, with the same player and coach, twice, nine years apart? Also ironic is that in 14/15 coming off La Decima, top to bottom all the players were in their prime and Flo actually had a legit claim that the team is perfect yet still decided to tinker bringing in Kroos and James for Di Maria while selling Xabi and Casemiro, again leaving the midfield understrength in terms of defending. But now that we have been staring squad turnover in the face for years with the 2014 core of players all hitting retirement age, Flo has sat on his hands and is still desperately waiting for Mbappe.
Not according to some of our own posters. They are either shit/useless or it’s Carlo’s to blame. This isn’t aimed at you but to me the squad has had obvious issues for a while now that have still not been addressed and I don’t see how the next manager alone fixes that.
Sorry - trying to understand this, you think the issues with our squad this year are down to Casemiro, or due to "midfield understrength in terms of defending"? I think Tchouameni & Camavinga are more than capable of playing DM, and Valverde is a capable B2B. I would point the finger to the attack and the wingback play. Completely agree selling Xabi was a mistake by Flo. Kroos was a stroke of genius though, I think that cancels out the impact of Di Maria leaving. But I think you are misremembering 13/14 Casemiro. From what I recall, he made a mistake in the penalty box that cost us points once that season, and Ancelotti never trusted him again. Looking back to Transfermarkt, seems Casemiro played 657 minutes all 13/14 season. If Carlo had such belief in Casemiro at the time, enough to say his absence would cost us the next season, I think he would have played more than that... It was really Porto who showcased Casemiro's talent and Zidane who made him a center feature of the squad. But anyway, I'm not here to get into a debate about 9 years ago.
Actually agree with you - the squad has issues that aren't resolved in 2 years time when Endrick arrives. I think this statement is true, while also thinking Ancelotti isn't the guy for the future. I think on paper, there would be plenty of teams foaming at the mouth to field a line-up of our best XI as is, and Ancelotti hasn't been able to get the best of them. Liverpool 5-2 doesn't change that. WC in the middle of the season doesn't excuse that, every other top team had to deal with the same. Injuries can't be blamed either, Pintus has done remarkably. Ancelotti just hasn't motivated or coached this team to its full potential this year, and I see it as a pattern for him from the past
Zidane > Carlo > Klopp > Tuchel. If we can't get Zizou back, I'm fine with another season of Carlo. Trophies be damned... Unfortunately he is hellbent on getting fired. I'm just wondering how many more summer transfer windows Flo plans to p*ss away for a certain ninja turtle before he gets his head out of the sand and recognizes we need an attainable CF to replace an aging and clearly slumping Karim Benzema. How many times will Real Madrid keep going back to that? He's gonna pull an Eden Hazard and try to come well past his prime. I accept that, but I think it's foolish that Flo will fall for that.
🎙| Ancelotti: "Problems with the attack? We scored 5 goals at Anfield."— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) March 5, 2023 He says this again. It's a sign we've lost the plot.
Whether this is Carlo's fault or not, doesn't really matter. It will be remembered as Carlo's fault because that's how Perez designs it - in that sense I feel bad for Carlo. The reality is that Carlo is a coach that will just do what the president tells him. The cleanup that was supposed to happen. 2 years ago got delayed because of the CL last year. I doubt we're going to see a shopping spree this summer, my bet is that perez will hang into the old players until after the stadium is done and then do a "rebuild" that is tied to the opening of the stadium.