3 ways Carlo Ancelotti has improved Real Madrid and 3 things he must still improve

Although it is still early in the season and things can drastically change, Real Madrid have been playing better under Carlo Ancelotti than they did with Zinedine Zidane last season. The team has a more precise way of playing and we have been seeing some great individual performances from players many of us thought were lost causes.

Despite some hiccups, such as losing at home in the Champions League to Sheriff, Ancelotti reverted the situation and has the team back on track. But what have been some of the things Ancelotti has done that has the squad in a better situation and what are some of the things he needs to improve on.

Positives:

•  Adapting to the squad

The main reason the team is playing much better than last season is that Ancelotti is making the team play to its strengths. Under Zidane, the team’s style was playing with possession, which did not suit them. Although the squad has many technical players, their attacks biggest strength is their speed and needed to play in a way that showcased that.

With Ancelotti, the team plays with less possession and has dropped back, but what that has done is given the attacking players space in front to run. When the midfield wins the ball back, they immediately pass it to the speedy wingers who can use their pace and skill to exploit opposing defenses. As a result, we are FINALLY seeing the best version of Vinicius, Rodrygo is more consistent, and even the likes of Bale, Asensio, and Hazard have “at times” looked better.

• Tactical organization

Despite the issues in defense, the team is tactically more organized and better positioned. The best example of this is the Clasico where Barcelona had all the possession, but could not break through Madrid’s defense. Last season, the team was tactically unorganized and oppositions created more chances; and the only reason Madrid did not concede more goals is because of Courtois’ clutch performances.

Along with this, Ancelotti is better than Zidane when it comes to making tactical substitutions. If necessary, Ancelotti would take off an attacker to put on a midfielder or defender and can even make offensive changes without breaking the team’s defensive structure. On the other hand, Zidane would make substitutions after the 75th minute, they’d usually be like for like, and his offensive changes would break the team.

• Squad Management

Another thing Ancelotti has done is take advantage of the entire squad, contrary to Zidane who would only use “his” players and isolate those he did not like. He has rotated the squad on many occasions in the early part of this season, which has seen many reserves and even youth team players getting valuable playing time.

Now it is up to those backups to show what they can bring to the team and prove to the manager they deserve more playing time. It is extremely difficult to keep every player in a good mood, but Ancelotti is making sure they at least feel important.

Negatives:

• Defensive changes

The team’s weakness this season has been their defense. When opposing team’s press high, the defense struggles to cope with it and has led to conceding many ‘avoidable’ goals. Some continue to point at the departures of Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane as the reason for these defensive issues. While there is a new center back partnership and some of these issues were to be expected as it takes time to develop, a big reason for these problems is because Ancelotti has continued to change the defense; and not just for injury reasons.

He began the season starting Alaba at left back and a center back pair of Nacho and Militao. Then he put Alaba at center back and would switch pairing him with Nacho or Militao. Along with this, he would constantly play with different right and left backs, which have been detrimental to the cohesion of the defense. With that said, it looks like Ancelotti has finally decided to go with Militao and Alaba at center back, Mendy seems to be the unquestioned starting left back, and Carvajal is back from injury, with the only question being, can he stay fit?

• Struggle to break opposing defenses

As we saw against Osasuna, when opposing teams sit back, Real Madrid do not have any solutions to break them down. They have all the possession, but do not create any clear opportunities. Something which has become a trend as we saw against Villarreal, Sherriff, Espanyol, and even Shakhtar until their own goal.

This is something Ancelotti needs to solve because there will be more games like Osasuna and the team will continue to drop points. What are some solutions to these issues? Getting Hazard (when fit) more involved to take on opposing defenders, shooting more from long distance, playing with a natural striker to distract the center backs, and taking advantage of some of the tall players to have additional aerial options are just some of the things Ancelotti could do.

• Too defensive minded

Another issue this season with Ancelotti is that at times he has shown opposing teams too much respect and can hold the squad back in moments where they could cause Real Madrid serious problems. This is what we saw in the Clasico where despite the victory, they dropped back for most of the encounter, did not press high or push up the midfield’s line of pressure, and let Barcelona have too much possession. Although the game was under control, a slight mistake could have caused them the victory, which would have been disastrous playing against this average Barcelona side.

While dropping them back at moments is necessary in order to take advantage of the speedy attacking players, if there is no pressure from the midfield, they cannot create many opportunities up front. They could easily cause more problems if they were to press high and take full advantage of the skilled players they have at their disposal.