Carlo Ancelotti said his Real Madrid squad “should be worried” after absorbing a 3-1 home loss to AC Milan in the Champions League.
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Real Madrid “should be worried”
Malick Thiaw’s header put Milan 1-0 up at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday before Vinicius Junior levelled with a penalty.
Former Real and Atletico Madrid striker Alvaro Morata finished high into the roof before the half, and Tijani Reijnders sealed the deal for the Serie A side.
Madrid have now lost their last two games after losing to rivals Barcelona 4-0 in El Clasico, who they now trail by nine points in LaLiga.
“We should be worried because the team isn’t playing well,” Ancelotti told Movistar. “We have to be more solid, more compact. We’ve conceded a lot of goals.”
With the defeat, Madrid now struggles in midtable in the new Champions League league phase.
“It isn’t about being patient or not, the reality is what you see on the pitch, which is that we’re missing something,” Ancelotti said in his post-match news conference. “Worry in these moments is normal. It will be a long night, but that’s what we have to do, think, all of us, about improving things.”
“We’ve conceded nine goals [in three games] and that’s too many for a team which built its strength on solidity.”
Mbappe is not the problem
Ancelotti emphasized that their attacking department, led by Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius, isn’t actually the problem.
“We had a lot of chances. The problem for me isn’t that. Probably we lacked being clinical, but the main problem we have to fix is how easily our opponents are creating opportunities.”
“When you aren’t solid, you have to be more organised. You can’t say my players are lazy, but right now we aren’t able to work together effectively.”
Meanwhile, the Italian manager denied that Mbappe’s summer arrival disrupted the dressing room atmosphere.
“No, the dressing room is healthy,” he said.” There’ll be a lot of criticism, about our attitude, training… What critics think, we have to accept. We aren’t doing well. We want to do better. Like this it’s hard to get to the end of the season.”
“Each year, there are difficult moments where you have to struggle, fight, think. What isn’t normal is that this team had a good run, and has fallen very fast. That’s part of football. When you think everything is perfect you fall, but the good thing about football is that you can react.”
