16 months ago, in a less happy season than this one for Madrid but still alive in the Champions League and about to play in the Cup final, Carlo Ancelotti started without prior notice with a vindication of his figure in the section that usually receives the least praise. : the tactic. The club’s press employee had ended the appearance, but the Italian still had something to say. “Wait,” he asked with a smile. “Everyone recognizes me, that I am fantastic at managing (the locker room). But then there are other things: this team is well worked. Because if we are lucky enough to win the Cup (he did it against Osasuna), we will have achieved all the possible titles in two seasons, something that some do not achieve in a lifetime,” the coach concluded with a personal chest-thump.
This Saturday, at Wembley, Carletto’s scoreboard, in tune with the opinion of his players, ended up being the switch that began to change the fate of the Champions League final. After a very crude first half for the whites — “we were a little lazy,” the Italian even said in full euphoria — the change of pace was forged at half-time, in a crisis cabinet in which several veterans participated , in addition to the technician.
“I didn’t arrive angry, but I did need to clarify things a little,” Ancelotti said. “The players also spoke and we discussed the system change together. It’s not that I made the decision alone. I told them: ‘Look, for me we have to change a little’. They agreed and we did it,” explained the Reggiolo coach. Among the footballers, Carvajal and Nacho were the ones who “raised their voices the most”, according to Fede Valverde, one of the protagonists of Madrid’s reorganization. “In the second half he was a little crazy with so many formation and position changes, but he gave us stability,” said the Uruguayan.
The variation went from the usual 4-4-2 at the start to a 4-3-3, with Vinicius and Rodrygo as wingers, also to press, and Bellingham and Valverde on the inside. Carvajal, the key to almost everything in London, actively participated in this turn. “I told the coach that we could go back to the 4-3-3 because in the center they were finding Brandt and Sabitzer easy. Get together a little more so that Vini and Rodrygo were not so alone,” indicated the author of the first goal.
The effect was not instantaneous, but it did manage to gradually subside the German attacks. If in the first half the balance of shots was eight to two in favor of Dortmund (none on Madrid’s goal), in the half hour of the second half that elapsed until 0-1 the score had already begun to level out: three -five for the whites, who did not have great chances, but did not feel so threatened. Carvajal’s goal definitely reversed the match.
From Valverde to Bellingham
The blackboard is Ancelotti’s most secondary facet in the public eye, although almost all of the substantive decisions he has made in these three seasons have brought him benefits. In 21-22, he successfully opted to take advantage of the Casemiro-Kroos-Modric trio to go on the counterattack, and then refined it by placing Valverde on the right on the way to the League and Champions League double. Last season, in the post-World Cup slump, he managed to sustain the team while making a move that seemed risky: Kroos alone in the pivot and Camavinga at left back to make room for Rodrygo up front. And last summer, he illuminated his most applauded decision: bringing Bellingham closer to the area in the absence of a world-class natural replacement for Benzema. Three months later, he squared the circle by sending the Englishman to cover the left due to the team’s fragility in defending the centers. At the same time, he has been convincing Vinicius to step into the central areas to produce more goals, and he invention Tchouameni as center back due to injuries and lack of reinforcements.
He has also left some specific decisions that ended in a trigger, such as when he placed Modric as a false nine in a classic that ended with a 0-4 for Barça (“I failed, but it is quite rare that I do it twice,” he reacted), or when this season he fielded five midfielders in the white panic return against Leipzig. In the general balance, however, the board has smiled on Carletto.
Having secured his seventh Champions League (five as a coach) after the collegiate adjustments at half-time, another tactical mission awaits Ancelotti at the return of the summer: adapting Madrid to the departure of Kroos and the foreseeable arrival of Mbappé. “Now he is going on vacation to a ranch, to collect the cows,” said his son Davide at the gates of Wembley.
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