Ancelotti: “My players have won so much, but remain so committed”

Real Madrid have won the 2021/22 Spanish Super Cup and Carlo Ancelotti is happy to have that winning feeling again. Asked if he and his players might ever get tired of winning, the coach pointed out that he hadn’t won a trophy since the 2017 German Super Cup. He stated: “No, you don’t get tired of winning. The last trophy I won was a Super Cup with Bayern, so I hadn’t won anything for a while. I feel I worked well in Napoli and Everton, yet I didn’t win anything. I feel very satisfied and I enjoy seeing my players happy. They’ve won so much, but they’re still committed. When you win a lot, you might think you’re the best and that you play the best football in the world. Then, you might not work as hard. But, here the level of sacrifice is the same.”

The coach believes this his side deserved this trophy, given the way they’d played over the games against Barcelona and Athletic. He said: “I think both matches we’ve played here have been good and we deserved to win them both, even if both the matches were different. We controlled possession very well for 70 minutes tonight, before we dropped deeper. But, that can happen in a final.”

Ancelotti on comparing his current Real Madrid team to the previous one

Asked if winning with the 2021/22 squad was more satisfying than the trophies won during his previous spell with Los Blancos, Ancelotti simply said that it was different. He explained: “We have different players, but the same quality as before. We don’t have Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, but now we do have Vinícius and Rodrygo. I feel just as proud of both teams. This is a very very good team and very very good squad. We leave with extra strength to keep competing and we know that we can win with different approaches. I feel lucky and proud to be here in charge of this club. Of course, we’re now going to keep competing in the other competitions. We have our next match on Thursday and it’s an important one. If we have some fatigued players then we can make some changes.”

Ancelotti on Rodrygo’s impact on the Supercopa final

Rodrygo got the start in the place of the injured Marco Asensio and was excellent during his hour on the pitch. Discussing the youngster, Ancelotti said: “Rodrygo has my trust. But, sometimes Asensio plays and sometimes he plays. The competition between the two of them has helped them both and helped the team. Today, Rodrygo played very well and was very efficient in the first half, not just with the assist.”

Ancelotti on Marcelo’s minutes

Marcelo came on in the 86th minute, with this widely viewed as Ancelotti giving him the chance to take part in the tournament and what was his 23rd title with the club. But, the coach insisted that there was a tactical reason for the change too, saying: “Marcelo has remained professional and important in the squad. It wasn’t a gift to him when I put him on. We wanted to cover that left flank well for the final minutes. He deserves more minutes than he gets, because of his good attitude every day.”