A very annoyed Carlo Ancelotti
spoke to the media after the loss to Atlético de Madrid to discuss several topics, like the
substitutions or the controversy surrounding Khedira and Di María.
Carlo Ancelotti was understandably unhappy after the loss. He
should be, after a very poor performance against Atlético de Madrid where even
his substitutions were questionable (like taking Toni Kroos out instead of Xabi Alonso) at best: Continue...
We lost the control of the game in the
second half. We needed more ball possession, which we did well in the first
half. It was more complicated in the second half where they were defending how
they like to. That's why we made those substitutions.
The Italian coach says this
game represented the end of a season and dedicated a painful reminder to
Atlético de Madrid:
A season ends today. I want to thank the
players and the club because we accomplished big things. It was far better to
lose this game than to lose in Lisbon. At the end, we've won three trophies.
Lots of Madridistas were already
dreaming about winning the Sextete (winning all six trophies in one
season), but tonight that dream was shattered. Carlo isn't really too worried
about it:
None of us, not even the players, have
ever talked about a Sextete. We've only discussed winning as many
trophies as possible.
A substitution that was discussed was Cristiano Ronaldo's. The
Portuguese wasn't terrible but he looked like he wasn't ready to play:
He wasn't ready to play for 90 minutes. I
decided to use him in the second half when the pace was slowing down.
More on the controversial
substitutions:
I changed our three midfielders and we
lost possession because of it. That's why I put Isco
in Kroos' spot.
Ángel Di María didn't play and he still
made a lot of noise but for all the wrong reasons. He wasn't included in the
final list for this game, which, obviously, gave place to a lot of speculation.
Here's Carlo's reason why Di María didn't make the cut (believe it or not,
that's on you):
It was a tactical decision. I didn't need
Di María tonight.
James Rodríguez was arguably Real Madrid's best player tonight. He started the match and
slowly started to participate in most of Real Madrid's
meaningful chances. He got some well-deserved praise from the Italian coach:
His first half was fantastic as he was our
most dangerous player. He tried to find a position between the lines. In the
second half, he played a lot in the middle. He was tired and that's why I
replaced him with Isco.
Just like Di María, Sami Khedira wasn't included by Carlo for this game since he
traveled to Germany for personal reasons. According to his coach, he had
the club's permission to do so:
The club gave him permission
to go to Germany. I'm not interested in where he went. When they're free,
players they can go anywhere they want.
With this loss, the next
season is just about to start for Ancelotti:
It's going to be an interesting season. We
have a great team and we'll try to do the same things we did last year. We have
a very competitive team to win La Liga and the Champions League. It's going to
be a positive season, like the one that just ended."
Finally, he spoke about Karim Benzema, and whether something needs to be done to
improve that position:
No, we don't need to reinforce that
position. I'm happy with Benzema. Even when he doesn't score, he offers
solutions to the team. He's really useful to the team.
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