Carlo Ancelotti is the new coach of Real Madrid!

[Blue Armour 4,278]

Maybe Ancelloti's not Alex Ferguson, but with all the Steve Bruce's and Jorge Jesus's out there its going too far to call him "AVERAGE"..

Personally I liked how he managed the team when he was here. I don't think we've played better football since 09-10, and that's saying something, considering the creative talent we added last season.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I absolutely adore King Carlo, and want him to succeed - but I can see him being sacked inside 18 months. There are a lot of egos at Real, and if things don't go their way and they mutiny... well, better man-managers than Ancelotti (Pellegrini, Mourinho) have been sacked...

[Peace. 4,352]

He also finished second to Juventus twice when Juventus had their titles taken away from them by cheating. So, in 8 years, in a highly competitive league he did very well. Yes, those were some very good Milan teams, but they were also some even better Juventus teams and some even better than that Inter teams, not to mention some great Roma teams. This wasn't Spain where two teams only have a chance to win. You don't stay manager of AC Milan for 500+ games as a failure. Additionally, your criticisms of him at Chelsea are absurd. He led us to maybe our best ever year with what was certainly not close to our best overall squad. And Ancelotti's Chelsea was not Mourinho's Chelsea. We spent almost no money under Ancelotti. He took a third place team from the year before added basically no players of significance (Zhirkov was our big signing) and gave us arguably our best season ever. It wasn't until January of his second season that Chelsea spent for him and then it was a useless Torres and Luiz who wasn't ready for regular Premier League football. That season, we had literally no depth and we were having to play guys like Kakuta and McEachran who STILL aren't ready for Premier League football, in a fair number of games. Our front line was a declining Drogba, Anelka, and Kalou .Lampard missed a lot of the season. We had to play our third choice RB for a lot of games due to injuries and we still came second. Hardly a bad result at all. Yeah, I didn't like everything he did managerial wise, but I never do with any manager. Those teams simply didn't have near the spending, the depth, or the talent that Mourinho had when was here.

My criticisms of him at Chelsea are absurd ? Humph, they are not.

Regarding our 2009-2010 season. Yeah, it was maybe the best season we ever had... But maybe. Throphy-wise, it certainly was. In regards of the quality of football we played, if you listen to the general consensus, then yes it was also our best season. But I am in total disagreement over this issue. I am not denying that we played a very good football ; though, we cannot say it was the best — it was one of the best. From the general public's perspective, it was the best because it was flashy, class and fluid. But personally, I prefer the football we played under José — to mine, it's the best football (in term of quality) that we ever had produced. Tactically speaking, it was on point, and from the team was emitting a feeling of power and a feeling of total control over the opponent. But after all, it's down to personal appreciations and preferences.

As for the achievement in the League that year, it wasn't that impressive. I believe most of judgments are clouded by the fact we scored 103 goals and by the few games towards the end of the season where we scored a lot of goals (i.e. 5-0 against Portsmouth, 7-1 against Aston Villa, 7-0 against Stoke City and 8-0 against Wigan). I'll repeat it : at the end of the day, we finished only 1 point ahead of a distinctly average team of Manchester United (and we had to wait for the last week to be sure to win the League) !! Yes, that team whom second best goalscorer was Mr Own Goal. And we cannot say that Arsenal, Tottenham and Loserpool were a frightening opposition.

Then, you say "He took a third place team from the year before added basically no players of significance (Zhirkov was our big signing) and gave us arguably our best season ever." But you failed to mention that he took over a team which was in a very good dynamic after the spell of Guus Hiddink. Just as you say that "He led us to maybe our best ever year with what was certainly not close to our best overall squad" ; I can say that despite not having our best overall squad, Ancelotti had the best individualities. Indeed, with 29 goals and 13 assists, Drogba had probably his best season this year ; Malouda had an exceptional season ; Lampard, with 22 goals and 17 assists, has had his best season (if my facts are right) statically-wise. Back then, these three players were regarded, especially by us Chelsea fans, as ones of the best in the world. And you make it sound as if Ancelotti was the Chelsea's poor boy. Despite not adding players of significance, the manager had still a pretty good squad, hadn't he ? Drogba, Malouda and Lampard being on a great form ; Ballack and Carvalho, despite being on the twilight of their career were competent enough ; Cech, Cole, Mikel, Alex, Anelka, Ivanovic... José's squad was better ; Ancelotti's individualities were better. That's at least how I see it.

I am not saying that what Ancelotti has achieved in his first season is ridiculous ; I am just arguing that, at the light of the facts that I have aforementioned, this achievement is not enough to put Ancelotti upon a pedestal and label him as a great manager.

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In regards of the second season, yeah I know we lacked depth and had many problems (Lampard and Essien being injured and being average (at best) after coming back from injury ; Drogba and Anelka not being good enough, etc...). Actually, I hate Gourlay ever since this season : he lied big time at the start of the season by saying, after having loosen Ballack, Cole, Carvalho and Beletti, that Bruma, PvA, Kakuta and McEachran were good enough to replace the players who have left. But going by your post, you misunderstand my point. I never said it was a a bad resulat — though that it was hardly a good one, considering that once again Manchester United were not that good (that's an understatement) and we finished nine points behind them ; we were on par with a Manchester City team which was nothing special ; we were three points ahead of the ever average Arsenal.

Though, the result of this season is of little importance in the point I made, because I was talking solely about the qualities of his that Ancelotti displayed. As you say, we had many problems back then ; and my criticisms toward Ancelotti are exactly concerning how he handled these problems — without a fucking clue. Our front line of Drogba, Anelka, Malouda and Kalou was producing striclty nothing. To change that, what did he do ? He kept the same formation and the same players — brillant answer to that problem. He could have used Sturridge to try and change the bad dynamic our front-line was in ; but no, he only used him at the 85th minutes of games. Though I gotta admit that he was right... after all, Sturridge only scored 8 goals in 12 games in the second part of the season, while on loan. Another example : against Marseille au Stade Vélodrome, Cole was not available. Instead of trying something and playing van Aanholt, Ancelotti went conservative and played Paulo fucking Ferreira. I do not believe that the dutchman was good enough to have a role into our team. But come on, for my left-back spot, I'd rather a not good enough left-back that a not-good-enough-32-years-old-third-choice-right-back. But who I am kidding — we needed the magnificent Ferreira to play against the potential Ballon d'Or that Valbuena is.

Finally, our team was overall lethargic ; we were playing with ten greek statues. And nothing changed over the season, not even a fucking small improvement. That's where lies my criticisms of Ancelotti. It's not about the outcome of the season — it's about how he dealt with our problems. The only thing he was able to do was to say, in press conference, that it was only a Bad Moment©. He proved that when everything is not going perfectly, he doesn't have a clue how to change it. He was as lethargic as our players — which says a lot.

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The bottom line of my point is that, in the light of the arguments that I have exposed in this comment, the time that Ancelotti has spent at Chelsea proved that he was a good manager, but not a great one.

[MetsajCFC 1,255]

Was brilliant for us, was brilliant for PSG and will be brilliant for RM, perfect match. All the best to him, sincerely would like to see him succeed

[Ankit 3,176]

#Zidane will be on with bench with me. The only problem is that he can't play." - Ancelotti

Journo: "Don't know if you knew that Iker Casillas was on the bench in the last months". Ancelotti: "No I didn't know"

[Jase 43,479]

Paul Clement has gone with Ancelotti to Madrid too by the way.

FFW ‏@FrenchFtWeekly 7m

Confirmed in the Ancelotti presser that Paul Clement will also leave PSG to be his #2 at Real Madrid

[Jase 43,479]

Carlo Ancelotti will be like a breath of fresh air at Real Madrid

Interesting...

Ancelotti has used a 4-2-3-1 in just 3% of the league games in which he has been coach since taking over at Juventus in 1999.

[Zinedine Iniesco 172]

That thing about the 4-2-3-1 is just more refreshing to me as it point to alonso getting the f out.

Carlo hit stride with his presentation btw...

You know what he said?

" we need to win with offensive and spectacular football".

Hes set a benchmark for himself an the club now.

[Heisenberg 1,824]

Just like what Madrid needed after Mourinho, but this Barcelona is still immense, so dont expect to win the title in his first year.

[edetarod 2,155]

Barcelona will have a field day in la Liga next season

[Zinedine Iniesco 172]

Madrid locker room with be well motivated and man managed with zidane and carlo.

Along with our team improving and not possibly getting in any way "worst" than what mourinho did, i dont think the league action for madrid will be anyone near as bad as some think because of Carlo's history, principally with milan.

[Milan 17,853]

[Tomo 21,733]

Madrid locker room with be well motivated and man managed with zidane and carlo.

Along with our team improving and not possibly getting in any way "worst" than what mourinho did, i dont think the league action for madrid will be anyone near as bad as some think because of Carlo's history, principally with milan.

With the players you have i would say (from what i saw of Carlo at Chelsea) when it's good you will be very good but he stagnated both us and Milan and left us in absolute ageing states that were both still to this day rebuilding from, it will be interesting to see what happens this time when your team start to age a bit.

He's the kind of manager that over values experience too much.

[Fernando 6,457]

comparing a coach to a player is kinda...you know

ancelotti is one of the best coaches in the world and that for years. calling him average is just a plain insult.

Benitze often talks about his cv.

Anyways, think he is a great manager.

He did awesome here at Chelsea in his first season.

Second season went to shit because we sold too many players and wanted to play a lot of younger players.

But Madrid got a hella of a team, and Carlo will have them playing exciting just like he did with us. Chelsea under Carlo was one of the best Chelsea I ever seen.

Good luck King Carlo! :blue scalf:

[Zone 290]

Oh look...a few 'innocuous' digs for having an opinion that differs from the status quo. Serves me right for being independent, I'll think again before stating my opinion on this forum.

And people ask why I don't post much anymore...

When people post nonsense they get called out for it on any forum. So if you post crap about a class manager without giving any arguments, you can expect these replies. If you find bullshit posts like those an opinion then whoever asked you to post more should stop posting also.

No offense, of course.

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

Carlo firstly has to get Madrid to play as a team and not rely on Ronaldo's goal scoring. Ultimately that was a big factor to Jose's down fall this year along with other things. The team was built around Ronaldo obviously but he cannot carry a team for a full season.

The year they won La Liga, Benzema and Higuain both scored a lot more goals, Ozil had more assists and they also kept more clean sheets in comparison to this year.

[Zinedine Iniesco 172]

There are many factors as to why madrid did most poorly with mourinho in 12/13 but among the ones related to players.

Arbeloa was shit in every sense. He was atleast reliable in defense in 11/12.

Khedira was always horse piss.

Alonso is getting older, was always a nuissance in the system, and played almost every game, loss of form and health.

Both Benzema and Higuain rotated to no avail, and rumors of false promises and thus rips in relationships between guys like benz and mourinho.

Ozil was more inconsistent also having to do with mourinho trying to play him just a bit more back.

Di Maria - Speechless.

[Tomo 21,733]

But Madrid got a hella of a team, and Carlo will have them playing exciting just like he did with us. Chelsea under Carlo was one of the best Chelsea I ever seen.

and one of the worst.