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Interview with Ancelotti

As I mentioned last week, Ancelotti gave an interview to The Obi One Podcast. They talked about a lot of things, including Mbappe, Kroos, Ronaldo, Hazard, Carlo’s relationship with Perez.

I found a bit odd that Obi was shocked to hear Rodrygo and Vini played both in the left side vs City.

Below some transcripts of the interview.

About working with Davide

David had greater responsibility when he started, because everyone could think he was there because of me. He had a fantastic teacher – Paul Clement. He was behind Paul Clement and when Clement left, Davide became assistant. I put him as my assistant, because I know he has the knowledge to do the job. I don’t want to put my son in a place with responsibility where he does not have the knowledge. I

I want a staff with confidence and he has a lot of confidence. He can say to me things that not all people can say, because they don’t have the courage. I want to have an assistant and people that work with me that challenge me. And we have the challenge. We are a staff that discuss a lot. They give to me a lot of information. One information they gave to me was to put Joselu in that game [vs Bayern, 2nd leg].

Jude

When we watched his games at Dortmund, we realized he was good to go to the box in the right time. His movement is good when you have the ball. And when we lost Benzema, we think that we could put him as a player without a fixed position, but who could go the box at the right time, a bit like Frank Lampard.

Carlo style

I want to give more information to players about the defensive aspect, because to defend is a matter of concentration, sacrifice, team spirit. With the ball, it is completely different. You have to consider the creativity of the players. This is really important in attacking football. I tried to help the team to manage well the situation of the game.

In modern football, people talked about build-up from the back. You build from the back if you have space, quality of the defenders and goalkeeper. But when I see the defenders or goalkeepers touches the ball more than others, I think something is wrong.

At Everton, we had a fantastic keeper to shoot the ball – Pickford was perfect in long balls. We had a fantastic striker to catch the ball – Calvert-Lewin. The defenders were not so comfortable to play from the back. Why I have to play from the back? I have to give the ball to Pickford so he can put long balls to Lewin and to fight for the second ball. I adapt the style of play to the characteristics of the players.

I love teams when they defend well as much as when they attack well. I love both. It is no matter to if I have to play 80 minutes in my pitch to defend to do well.

There is an interesting and funny moment when Carlo says the most important part of his work is not the strategy; it’s the relationship. Then, Obi started to praise Carlo, saying he is the best of man-management, that all players say this. Carlo then interrupts him and says smiling “but I’m good tactician, don’t forget. I am good tactician!.”

You can see the video below: