Real Madrid have appointed Carlo Ancelotti as the man to fix the mess left behind by Jose Mourinho. The former Paris Saint-Germain manager signed a three-year contract with Los Blancos.

On 20th May, Real Madrid and José Mourinho reached a mutual agreement that he would leave his post at the Bernabeu at the end of the season, after three years in charge of Madrid. Ancelotti has been linked with the job since that day. The Italian manager asked to leave PSG but they refused to let him go until they have got a replacement. Then the French club signed Laurent Blanc on Tuesday and opened the door for Carlo Ancelotti to join Real Madrid.

Florentino Pérez (Real Madrid president) has always been an admirer of Ancelotti and tried to sign the Italian in 2009. However, the Italian chose Chelsea after ending a seven and a half years reign with Milan. But now, 4 years later, Florentino has got his man, and with his calm personality the Italian seems like the perfect man to replace Jose Mourinho.

In his playing days Ancelotti was a technically gifted midfielder who played with the famous Milan side in the late 1980′s who won two European Cups. Having played under some coaches like Arrigo Sacchi, Sven-Goran Erkisson and Enzo Bearzot he surely learned one or two things from them.

Carlo Ancelotti is known for his ability to handle great players and big dressing room personalities. He knows how to bring a certain togetherness among the players, something which Real Madrid really need at the moment. Ancelotti’s preferred formation’s are 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-2. But he is more likely to use a 4-2-3-1 at Real Madrid.

Tactics

Ancelotti may be inclined to the 4-2-3-1 but he will change according to circumstance – a lesson he learned at Parma his second job in management after promoting Reggiana to the Serie B. He admits he was to wedded to the 4-4-2 he had learned under Sacchi at Milan. At Parma, Ancelotti insisted on playing that way, even if that meant Gianfranco Zola playing on the left wing. He also missed out on Roberto Baggio who wanted to leave Milan, but wanted to play behind the front two rather than compete with the likes of Hernan Crespo and Enrico Chiesa to play as one of the two strikers. So he joined Bologna instead.

Now Ancelotti is more flexible and would find a way to accommodate a talented player like Roberto Baggio. ”I lost a great opportunity to improve the team with the ability of Baggio,” he said. “But that was a lack of experience. I had been a coach just two years. I didn’t have the knowledge to know I could change things. And maybe I was a little bit scared to change because it was the start of my career.”

He proved that in his third coaching job at Juventus, where he switched to a 3-4-1-2 to play Zinedine Zidane behind a front two. At Milan he wanted to play a 4-3-2-1 but when the Milan president Silvio Berlusconi ordered him to use two strikers, he obeyed and ended up playing a 4-3-1-2.

At Chelsea he tried to play with a diamond in midfield, but he realized that Frank Lampard is better playing with the ball infront him than behind him. Then he used Deco or Joe Cole in that role, before switching to a formation that varied between the 4-3-2-1 and 4-3-3.

With Paris Saint Germain he found the perfect striker in Zlatan Ibrahimovic to play in front for his 4-2-3-1 system. With the likes of Ezequiel Lavezzi, Javier Pastore, Menez, Nene and Lucas playing behind him. Even with those players he took the chance to change to a 4-4-2 when the occasion demanded.

It’s unlikely Ancelotti will come to Madrid and change much, of course that depends on who he does sign. It’s highly likely that he will play a 4-2-3-1, especially with Isco set to join them. The 4-2-3-1 formation requires 4 creative forwards, with possibly Ronaldo, Isco, Ozil and Suarez he will have that for sure. Plus you need two or at least one attacking full-back, Carvajal and Marcelo are a perfect fit for that role. You need a deep-lying playmaker like Alonso and a player who can advance from deep the type of Modric or their reported transfer-target Gundogan. So with that in mind I think 4-2-3-1 is the most likely formation that Ancelotti will use at Real Madrid.

The only issue is that since taking over Juventus in 1999, he has only used the 4-2-3-1 formation in just 3% of the league games. But that is likely to change with Real Madrid having an almost perfect squad for the 4-2-3-1 system. But I still think the main reason Florentino Perez appointed Ancelotti as Mourinho’s successor is because of his ability to unite the squad, rather than his tactically philosophy being a perfect fit with the squad.

VAVEL Logo
About the author