Ancelotti: “There was confusion and we weren’t well-positioned”

Real Madrid have lost two matches in a row, but Carlo Ancelotti has admitted that this Sunday’s defeat to Espanyol was much more deserved than the loss to Sheriff Tiraspol. On the 2-1 reverse, he said: “It wasn’t an accident today and we deserved to lose. The reaction came too late. We played bad. We started with one defensive and offensive idea, but we couldn’t keep a sense of calm or maintain that idea after conceding. There was confusion on the pitch and we weren’t well-positioned, with or without the ball. Being honest, that’s our worst match of the season. Now, we have the international break, but sometimes you want to play again straight away. We have to see what happened, how the team changed its attitude in one week.”

Asked exactly what he meant by the change in attitude, he cleared up his comment by explaining he was only referring to attitude on the pitch, saying: “I mean that we weren’t aggressive, we lost a lot of duels. I’m just referring to a tactical and technical aspect of the game.”

Pressed on why the team looked confused and out of position, Ancelotti said that the players have admitted to him they need to better stick to the plan. He explained: “I think the formation was quite clear. I’m not going to explain to you what it was, but I agree that the team seemed disorganised. We didn’t have the correct positioning with the ball. Obviously we need to fix that and I’ve already spoken to the players, who agree with that.”

Finally, the coach was asked why he played David Alaba at left-back and Nacho at centre-back, after previously saying he would prefer to have the Austrian in a central position. To that, he said: “I thought he could help in attack. I think he did, pushing forward. I told him to push forward, but sometimes the midfield weren’t well-positioned.”