Three defeats in four games: he lost a title, the Spanish Super Cup, half of the League has been left this Sunday and the Cup is in danger if he does not lift the 0-1 first leg
The Italian has tried repeating the same team that lost in the Cup at the Bernabéu without changing anything driven by being the one that eliminated Liverpool
FC Barcelona is taking Carlo Ancelotti’s ideas to the limit. The Italian has negative numbers against Xavi’s team, which he has won the three games he has faced them in 2023after the triumph of the whites in the League played in October 2022. Three-one in favor of the blaugranas, with the detail that on Sunday he put the same eleven as in the first leg of the Copa Rey played at the Bernabeu who also lost (0-1). Maybe he repeated after winning to Liverpool five days ago in the Champions League (1-0), and which served to confirm the advantage obtained at Anfield (2-5) to eliminate the English team. Against Barça there are four games with three defeats of the seven they have suffered this season: he lost a title, the Spanish Super Cup; Half the League has been left this Sunday and the Cup is in danger if he does not raise the 0-1 of the first leg.
Ancelotti has only repeated one eleven in the 43 games they have played, and he has done so three times, with two defeats and one victory. The Italian is one of those who places all the responsibility on a series of immovable players. An eleven in which Nacho and Rudiger appear instead of Alaba and Mendy, whom they have replaced with guarantees since they were injured. This Sunday he maintained the same structure, a 4-4-2 that Barça surpassed again favored by the low offensive threat of a Madrid more concerned with defensive transitions than attackers. He took the lead on the scoreboard, but As the minutes went by, he began to run out of energy due to the lack of freshness of many of his players., whose legs are heavy. The fact is that the two goals from Culés came at the end of the first half and of the game.
DOES NOT SURPRISE ANYONE
The management of the squad and Ancelotti’s football philosophy does not surprise anyone. The rivals know very well the few combinations that he makes in the elevenin which they almost always appear the same unless they are injured. A team of indisputable quality and capable of beating the best, but when freshness is lacking rivals easily nullify him by not using his best weapon, which is the speed at the berth supported by the quality of its players. He calendar is being wild with the whites, but Ancelotti does not help due to the lack of rotations that return oxygen to the most punishedplayers who repeat systematically.
It’s too late anyway to start giving input to fresh footballers like Ceballos, Asensio, Rodrygo or TchouameniNot to mention Hazard, Odriozola, Vallejo or Mariano, we don’t even remember how they play. Fresh players to reactivate the team in the less committed matches. But Ancelotti still has one last bullet to try to get even with Barcelona, although this season he will not be able to balance the scales. Will be on the return of the Copa del Rey at the Nou Camp (April 5), where need to win to come back. against, that eight of his fixed will not rest when playing with their national teams, and the four that he would have as a refresher have also been called up. That and repeating the same approaches from his last matches would make Xavi’s task easier. to stand in the final of the Cup