Carlo Ancelotti is probably living out his last season as Real Madrid manager, and it shows. The white club are convinced that an agreement has been reached to lead the canarinha to the Copa América in June (it's no secret because they insist on it almost every day from Brazil), and this feeling of a certain interim on the bench is already hanging about the institution and somehow marks the trajectory of the team. The coach's decisions are scrutinized more than ever, if possible, almost in terms of legacy.
Ancelotti cheats this particular situation from experience. Few coaches out there right now have their craft, let alone their resume. When asked about this issue, you need to understand between the lines. He always says he doesn't talk about the future, but for the first time a few days ago he refused to answer whether he would be willing to sign the renewal.
The classic comes to Ancelotti with the leading team and well positioned in the Champions League. He has not played a game of excels, but at the beginning of the season the coach was not very optimistic. Mbappé gave him pumpkin again. Benzema came out of the box when no one expected it. Ancelotti asked for Harry Kane and they brought him Joselu, who had always watched the Champions League on TV. All in all, Madrid got a wild card that no one expected: Bellingham, who went from great promise to Ballon d'Or candidate.
Carlo Ancelotti saw this clearly very early on and modified the team's design to develop the Englishman's full potential. The Italian has abandoned the 4-3-3 that he likes so much to play with four midfielders in a rhombus in which Bellingham is the tip. So far, the move has been perfect for him.
Ancelotti's justification is always the same: "I don't have a single system, but several with which I adapt according to the circumstances".
This last year Ancelotti has lost spontaneity (which he does not like) in his public appearances. He has abandoned his own discourse to focus on the club's victimhood with respect to the referees. In a final step further he defended himself with freedom of expression to defend the usual incendiary diatribes against the referees on the club's television.
Ancelotti has repeated several times that the lack of freedom of expression prevents him from talking about the referees because "if I say what I think I will be punished", but yesterday he did speak. He opined that "Gil Manzano is one of the most highly rated referees in Europe and has the profile for the classic".
At the press conference, the veteran Italian coach showed discomfort when he was told that in Barcelona the youth have more opportunities, something he denied: "It is true that they have very good people, such as Lamine Yamal and Fermín , but sometimes it is forgotten that we also have very young quality players, such as Bellingham, Camavinga, Tchouaméni, Rodrygo Goes and Vinícius".
Regarding the absence of Florentino Pérez from the Montjuïc box office, Ancelotti also justified it: "What I know is that the decisions taken by the president are always for the good of the club. Everything he decides is for the good of Real Madrid."
The classics have gone well for Ancelotti in this last stage. During the last season each team won at home in the League, but in the Cup Madrid came back with a 0-4 from the adverse 0-1 in the first leg of the semi-finals.
It will be the first classic in Montjuïc, a stadium of bad memories for the whites. Here the Galacticos, against all odds, lost a Cup final against Zaragoza in 2004. It was the end of Carlos Queiroz on the bench and the beginning of an era of turmoil that ended with the resignation of Florentino Pérez in February 2006.
As of now, nobody opens the club door for Ancelotti, unless he wants to open it himself.
