I think Carlo made the job harder on himself as well. Some of the decisions he made were mindboggling.
Yeah man. My parents are 70+. Realmente Madrid is always a topic with them (bu my mom prefers Barça haha). I can imagine how you feel. Family is everything. Cheers.
If Mbappe had blown out a knee it might have been a blessing in disguise because we probably would have seen a different Vini and maybe the team scores more goals and wins titles. But it wasn't just a1 or 2 defenders who was injured, basically it would be like losing Mbappe, Vini, and Rodrygo with Florentino telling Carlo our academy is the best in the world and no work needed to be done in the transfer market because he could just call up "Raul" from Castilla.
I think people forget how wedded Carlo is to the human element, that he stats loyal to his players because just like most of us backed him and said he deserved to finish the season even if things weren't going well. He also subscribes to the theory you don't turn your back on people during the hard times. He's just not as cut throat as other people in the business who hide behind words like progress, etc.
He ran Militao into the ground coming off the back of an ACL tear dude. When I talk about him making things harder on himself. That's what I'm referencing.
Sure, we'll let the coach know 🗣 Ancelotti: "If we had played like this in all the games we would have had a better season." pic.twitter.com/PLchz7JE43— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) May 14, 2025
I think a lot of coaches will be running their starters to the ground these coming seasons with the increased number of games. That is why I believe the key for top teams are deeper squads with better rotations moving forward. That or pray for minimal injuries throughout a season, but that isnt a sustainable model.
I do not think Carlo has adapted to this new reality, and it is why he is suffering. His over reliance on a small set of players does not work with so many games now. I was looking at the minute distribution across the squad this year and it is literally insane how many minutes players are playing compared to 4 years ago. Coaches will have to adapt and rotate or end up with no players by March.
He's a dinosaur in a way. A golden alpha t-rex dinosaur though. At least he won't have that problem with the Brazil NT.
You may not but the anti-Carlo crowd is clearly already lining up excuses for Xabi, they're already mentally preparing themselves for a new years countdown to see if he even makes to 2026. They've already decided the blame for anything that goes wrong next season should be shared equally between players, coach and administration beforeh this season has even ended. We don't know who the players will be, injuries, etc. They already decided if Vini goes to Saudi Arabia, Mbappe blows out his knee and Rudiger gets a 10 game suspension - that it is somehow partly Xabi's fault.
Militao came back from injury last season and had a full pre-season. The problem is that Nacho was never replaced and despite two CB coming back from knee injuries the administration didn't lift a finger to find 1 extra suitable backup CB, but Carlo was supposed to do what play Vallejo to give him rest.
Nacho was replaced. Inadvertedly I might add with Asencio. Just too many CB injuries. And that Sergio Ramos snub in January was retarded.
Asensio was literally on no one's radar. Nobody was posting here last summer or fall insisting Carlo call him up, there was no pressure from the media or social media to play him, he was just languishing away in Castilla with no real prospects. Asensio is just another great example of Carlo's inherent managerial genius. He spotted the talent when nobody else did, plucked this guy out of absolute obscurity and after about a month of training has the guy ready to compete at the highest level. GOAT.
Asencio was one of the top 3 prospect CBs in Castilla, he wasn't an obscure profile. Martinez and Jacobo were both out injured when our defensive disaster hit. Asencio was the only available option to Carlo. So if Carlo discovered him and "plucked" him from the depths of non-significance, why would he relegate him to the bench or straight up not call him up after the he impressed in 2 games? Let's not forget that even after Asencio proved his credentials, Carlo still preferred Tchouameni and Mendy at CB for months despite the pair directly costing us goals. It wasn't until the two Frenchmen were also injured and the media got on Carlo's back that Asencio was starting at CB again, mostly because the alternative was Vallejo..
Don't forget Carlo tried to shoehorn Alaba at CB as soon as he was available. Only to see that he was almost as useless as Lucas at RB.
Message was clear if we had done more of this.. Jude Bellingham is insane pic.twitter.com/Loh9X7FQjq— Rk (@RkFutbol) May 15, 2025 And less of this.. Bellingham gives the ball away and spends his time standing still reacting, meanwhile Pedri makes a pass, runs by him, and scores. pic.twitter.com/vLPiEOjimT— Luis Mazariegos (@luism8989) April 27, 2025 Season could have ended differently
Toni Kroos about the kind of football we played this season: Due to numerous defensive absences – Real Madrid is lacking a lot in their build-up play. The result: long balls. 'You've got almost the entire back four out. You need the players for that. That’s just how it is. If you don’t have them, it also makes sense not to try it. Still, people expect Real to be a team that builds up from the back. That was really lacking, at least against teams that pressed high. Most top teams do that, which is why it got really tough for us against most top teams this year.
Yeah but our amount of injuries to that backline with no help from JAS or Florentino in January made the task near impossible. Where he should have helped himself more was managing minutes for some of the young players in hope they are ready by February. However most of the comments from the guys call Carlo an idiot are idiotic themselves. They say stupid shit like when we were playing against barca "We don't build up or pass! We only hoof the ball forward!" Well idiot when we were trying to build up and pass with players who don't have the quality and a backline which can't sustain pressure we got ran over for 3 goals in what felt like 2 minutes. The reality is most (not all, there are some detractors here who know their stuff) don't even know what they're talking about.
This is why I think people are overly enthusiastic about Asensio, he is good at flying in and trying to win a ball but can he do the stuff that traditionally a team at this level needs a CB to be able to do? And TBC I like seeing him have some fire and emotion, it helps the squad, I just need to see more of his game to properly rate him.
🚨 BREAKING: Real Madrid want to hire Carlo Ancelotti again as SOON as World Cup 2026 ends.Role to be decided later. @marca pic.twitter.com/68ZNE5Z4ox— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) May 15, 2025 BREAKING: Real Madrid want to hire Carlo Ancelotti again as SOON as World Cup 2026 ends. Role to be decided later. @marca
Not only that, but he overplayed Militao after the ACL. He better rest Jude and Fede for the remaining 2 games. They are cooked.