Ancelotti: “We don’t mind deploying a low block and playing on the counter”

Following Real Madrid’s latest come-from-behind victory, Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media in the Bernabéu press room and analysed the 2-1 victory over Real Sociedad. Discussing the performance, the coach said: “The first half was difficult. Real Sociedad play a high defensive line so we had to attack a bit more directly. Their goal was a piece of play that we had talked about before the game, when they come central, but sometimes the opposition have enough quality to still score. We then managed to score and turn the game around. Then, we played a lower block once we had the lead. We went for a 4-4-2 with Bellingham on the left and then a 4-5-1 later on. We don’t mind deploying a low block and playing on the counter. Absolutely not. We’ll play on the counter when we need to. From the 70th minute, this game became about defending the lead.”

Ancelotti on conceding early goals

Real Madrid have conceded inside the opening 15 minutes in three of their five games so far this season. On that, Ancelotti said: “We’ve conceded a goal in three of the five matches. We’ve managed to come back and win, but we obviously need to fix this. It makes it harder if you concede first of course. We have options to score. We can score through the likes of Valverde, Rodrygo, Joselu, Modrić. We can score at set pieces. But, we need to stop conceding early and starting games 1-0.”

Ancelotti on Fran García’s performance

Discussing Fran García and his performance, the coach pointed out that he had a tough task in dealing with Kubo. He said: “Kubo played well and was very dangerous. Fran still managed to get forward couple of times in the first half and then in the second half he provided two excellent assists and we won the game because of that.”

Ancelotti on Bellingham’s scoring run ending

Jude Bellingham didn’t score in this game and the coach had a comment on why it was tougher for him. He said: “Bellingham didn’t get forward into the opposition area as much, but he had another good game. The high Real Sociedad defensive line made it harder to get forward today.”

Ancelotti on Joselu’s characteristics

Joselu was the man who scored the winning goal and the coach discussed his play. He said: “In attack there is no other player with the characteristics of Joselu. He can hold the ball up well. He can be very dangerous in the opposition box. He is good in the air. We knew what he could do before the season. It’s no coincidence that he’s scored two goals in these two home games because he has more chances when we play at home and play more crosses and can be closer to the opposition goal.”

Ancelotti also confirmed that he was about to take the striker off just before he scored his goal. He explained: “The substitution was going to be Joselu to try to add another midfielder and then move Bellingham further forward. He scored, but I still thought that having another midfielder made sense after taking the lead.”

Ancelotti on Rodrygo’s display

Asked about Rodrygo and his game, Ancelotti said: “Rodrygo is positioning himself well. He didn’t have long to recover after returning from the international break on Wednesday, similar to Valverde.”