Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti – ‘Some players forget they are not footballers, they play football’ | OneFootball

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti will go down as one of the best in the history of the game, and comports himself with a smile and a chuckle where possible. Despite pressures of top-level football, Ancelotti appears capable of ignoring the outside noise and connecting with his players in a way few manage to do so.

In contrast to many top managers, Ancelotti is not characters by a hard-edge or a maniacal intensity about the game, an attitude that sometimes leads to condescension towards him. Ancelotti has enjoyed his greatest successes at AC Milan and Real Madrid, two jobs that often mean leaving out star names.

“Sometimes it seems that we are not valued enough. I would like to be a fly on the wall, to hear what a player says when he is not playing and returns home. Many players have argued with me,” Ancelotti told Giacomo Poretti on his podcast.

Ancelotti has always been praised for his man management and ability to get the most out of his players, particularly in dressing rooms with big egos. Yet the Italian veteran explained that he too has had his share of bust-ups.

“Many players have had problems with me, but in the end everything has been resolved. There was a player, I won’t give his name, who when I spoke in the dressing room, he would put a towel over his face so as not to hear me. It was at the beginning of his career. One day I told him: ‘We can’t go on like this.’ There are players who, when you leave them on the bench, find it difficult to greet you in the morning. That’s when they confuse the person with the player.”

He notes that sometimes people allow their jobs to become who they are as people – perhaps a difficult distinction for many players.

“Or I always say: ‘Who are you?’ ‘I’m Giacomo and I’m an actor.’ No, you’re not an actor, you’re a person who acts. You’re a person who does a job that you like. A footballer says: ‘I’m a footballer.’ And no, you play football. I’m not a coach, I coach. I’m paid to make decisions. Some players get confused about that. They think: ‘Carlo is a coach, I won’t greet him.’ But if they understand that it’s my job, then they greet me. I’ve explained it to some of them and in the end they greeted me.”

Photo by Diario Sport

At one stage before his return to Real Madrid, many wondered if Ancelotti was in the twilight of his managerial career, having taken a step down from the elite. He admitted that the game had changed considerably from his time as a player.

“It’s much more complicated now than before. Before, I just had a piece of paper where I wrote down: defensive line, who was taking the corners, who was taking the penalties, who was going to head the ball, the markings on defensive set pieces… and that was it. Now there are clips showing the position of the players on set pieces, both in defence and attack. If you take a player off and another one comes on, you have to say to him: ‘Look, you have to take this position.’

As it is, Ancelotti appears to have moved with the times sufficiently, having won two Champions Leagues in three years, placing himself as the most successful manager in the competition’s history. Even if Ancelotti is sometimes denigrated for his tactical decisions, few have had as much success with top-level.