The manager of Real Madrid, Carlo Ancelotti, has said that his team needs to tighten its defense.
Real Madrid started its La Liga campaign yesterday against Real Betis. They somehow managed to win that match by 2-1, but, they didn’t look anywhere close to their best. They lost quite a few scoring chances and Ancelotti didn’t seem to be amused with that.
Talking to the reporters in the post match press conference, Ancelotti said, “We created a lot of chances, but, we couldn’t capitalize on them. The coordination was not great.”
“Our defense will have to improve significantly. We have some quality defenders in our squad and they need to step up.”
Ancelotti admitted that most of his players struggled physically on an extremely hot day. The 54 years old Italian said, “Most of the guys had just come back from the national duty. So, it was hard work for them in these hot conditions.”
In his first game in charge of Real Madrid, Ancelotti surprised a few people by not including the skipper Iker Casillas in the starting XI. Diego Lopez was preferred ahead of him.
When asked if Lopez would be his first choice goalkeeper in the ongoing season, Ancelotti said, “The decision to play Lopez was for this game only. I don’t know who will start in the next game. That decision will be taken later.”
“I had a chat with Iker. He is prepared to fight for his place and that’s great.”
Ancelotti also lauded the effort of Isco who scored a goal in his debut match for Madrid. The 21 years old attacking midfielder also assisted a goal.
When asked about the performance of Isco, Ancelotti said, “He had a wonderful debut. He gave his 100% which was nice to see. Hopefully, he will score many more goals for us in future.”