Real Madrid’s coach spoke ahead of the match against Sevilla.
Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media ahead of Real Madrid’s penultimate game of the season against Sevilla on Sunday. He was asked about the club’s latest signing, Dean Huijsen, to which he said: “Huijsen is a great, young player with a lot of potential. The signing is very good. I’m very excited about all the players Madrid signs, because Madrid always wants to be at its best and will always be at its best. Last year, it wasn’t even possible because we had Alaba back in the squad, Militao was doing well, Carvajal was doing well… What’s happened this season is that these injuries have hurt us.”
Ancelotti on the match against Sevilla
“We’ve always struggled at the Pizjuán. The goal is to try to finish the season well in the two remaining games. We did well against Mallorca, and we need to do well tomorrow as well.”
Ancelotti on his last two games
“I’m enjoying it. I wanted to enjoy it in a different way, fighting until the very last day for the League. This hasn’t happened, but I’m enjoying it and I’m going to enjoy it until the very last day. And then, I’ll prepare for another challenge.”
Ancelotti on Davide
“Davide is an important part of my coaching staff. Also because we have a special father-son relationship, I obviously have a lot of trust in him, as I do in the entire coaching staff. But he tells me things that others sometimes don’t dare to say. I’m convinced the coaching staff is very well prepared. It’s a young coaching staff, which inspires me a lot, which makes me think a lot, where we have many discussions. They’re very young, but they already have experience. I talked about Davide, but I also talked about Francesco, Mino, Simone… We also have a very good group of club analysts. With Simone at the helm, they’ve done a great job, and Madrid will be able to benefit from that work in the future because they’re very well prepared. I really like my coaching staff because we’ve been working together for a long time. We’re a family, and in that family atmosphere, you’re able to bring out the best in each other.”
Ancelotti on Barcelona winning the league
“This is part of football, sometimes you can’t get the best out of everyone. Barça did very well, and they deserve congratulations, because they were more consistent in La Liga and played very beautiful football. They deserved to win this league. Next year will be a different story.”
Ancelotti on coaching this crop of players
“Making an assessment of this now… More could have been said about us, but making a personal assessment of players like Valverde, Vinicius, Rodrygo, or Courtois today is impossible. It’s impossible. I’m never going to criticize these players who have given me so much joy over these past four years. For me, they’ll always remain the best, even if they don’t perform at their best at times.”
Ancelotti on praise from Enrique and Simeone
“Well, well. I’m grateful to all my colleagues. I’ve received a lot of affection. It’s a nice thing to have the affection of your colleagues, to have them appreciate your work and your personality. It’s wonderful. I’m going to enjoy these days.”
Ancelotti on whether the club listens to him
“They’ve listened to me. Look, since I’ve been here, Real Madrid has signed Camavinga, Rüdiger, Tchouameni, Bellingham, Mbappé… Could I have asked for more? No.”
Ancelotti on Kylian Mbappé’s attempt at winning Pichichi
“Obviously, yes, I think it’s important for him. This means he’s performed well this season. He’s going to score more than 40 goals. As his first season at Real Madrid, it’s been a very good season. Personally, I think he can get more out of his performance. But let’s be honest, his first season at Real Madrid has been a very good season.”
Ancelotti on whether a signing in the winter could have turned things around
“I don’t think so. We talked about it, and every decision the club has made has been shared with the coaching staff, and with me personally. There’s nothing more to add. Last year we had more or less the same problems and were able to fix them. This year has been a bit more complicated.”
Ancelotti on whether belief is a problem for this squad
“I don’t think so, it hasn’t been a problem of believing it. This team in the past has been able to believe things when no one else did. The comebacks we’ve had all this time are down to that, to believing and never giving up. It’s been an obvious problem: as I said, the key to this season has been the injuries we’ve had in defense, because there have been too many injuries, and to very, very important players. We mustn’t forget that in the last game against Barcelona, Militao, Rüdiger, Alaba, Carvajal, and Mendy were missing. The problem has been there, not believing it or not believing it.”
