Ancelotti: “There are too many red cards in LaLiga and it’s affecting the spectacle”

Carlo Ancelotti had his last press conference for several weeks after the 2-1 win over Cádiz and he seemed glad about it. The coach stated: “We have good news, as we took the three points and this is my last press conference for a while, so I’ll sleep well tonight! We’ll see how we deal with the break, and if we can organise a few friendlies. We have had a good start to the season, even if we had some struggles before this game. We’re two points behind in LaLiga and that’s more than we were, but we have achieved our objectives.”

Ancelotti on his late substitutes

The coach didn’t make any substitutions until the 82nd minute, and he was asked why. He replied: “I thought we were playing well, which is why I didn’t make substitutions earlier than I did. When you don’t score another goal to make it 3-0, that means they could score and make it 2-1 and then you have to suffer at the end.”

Ancelotti on not using Asensio

Marco Asensio was not one of those substitutes, despite being impressive in recent weeks. Asked why, Ancelotti responded: “He was a little bit tired, so I preferred not to risk him.”

Ancelotti on the aggressive challenges on Vinícius

When asked about the very physical and violent challenges that Vinícius suffered in this game and also in other recent games, Ancelotti gave a long and detailed answer. Rather than call for more red cards, he actually stated that he wants fewer red cards overall, stating that LaLiga has a problem in that sense right now. He said: “I think Vinícius is managing what is happening to him quite well. In the last few games, they have hit him a lot of times and I think he has controlled himself well. I saw a stat the other day that Spanish football has had 55 red cards compared to around 10 in the Premier League. Many of these red cards aren’t red cards, though, and giving out so many affects the spectacle. I remember that happened in Real Sociedad vs Valencia, or with Sevilla after Ivan Rakitić’s red yesterday, or the Borja Iglesias one in the Seville derby. It’s not a good spectacle when it’s nine vs 11. We need to be careful because this can ruin matches. I’m not criticising, I’m just saying as a football fan that this stat caught my attention. It might hurt Spanish football and it’s something to keep in mind.”

Ancelotti on the Fali punch

Sticking with refereeing decisions, even if Ancelotti wants fewer reds he did say that Fali could have been dismissed for the incident with Rodrygo. He stated: “To me, the punch seemed quite clear, but they must have thought there was reason not to review it.”

Ancelotti on Kroos’ position since the arrival of Tchouaméni

Asked if Toni Kroos has changed his position slightly since Aurélien Tchouaméni arrived, Ancelotti gave a short explanation, saying: “I don’t think he has changed his position too much, although he is working a little more defensively because Tchouaméni is a bit different to Casemiro.”

Ancelotti on the pitch

Finally, Ancelotti stated that the World Cup break will be a good time to fix the Bernabéu pitch, which was poor once again this Thursday. He said: “The Bernabéu pitch has always been really good, but they’ve had problems these past few weeks. Now they have some time to work on fixing it.”