With Kylian Mbappé set to join Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid, Wayne Girard takes a look at how the tactician will find the best way to use the world class player while keeping the other stars happy.
There was a point in Carlo Ancelotti’s career where fans had second-guessed the storied Italian manager’s career. And no, it wasn’t in the mid-1990s when his coaching career began, or after Liverpool’s comeback in the 2005 UEFA Champions League final.
After being appointed by Napoli in the summer of 2018, Napoli faced an early elimination in the Champions League group stage, which was Ancelotti’s earliest knockout in the competition since 2000. They had a decent finish in second place in Serie A but were given another premature exit in the Europa League quarter-final later that season. Carletto didn’t last another 12 months and quickly signed for Everton after being sacked by the Partenopei in December 2019. In Liverpool, he had a bright start before stagnating to a 10th-placed finish in the English Premier League.
Many thought it was a miracle that Real Madrid knocked on his door again in the summer of 2021, but as Ancelotti a few months later, he was the one calling from Florentino Perez after he had sacked Zizou Zidane, saying: “If you need a coach, you know I am here.”
The decision led Los Blancos to the next galaxy. Ancelotti became the first manager ever to win four Champions League trophies, and added his fifth this past season. Add in a few domestic titles, and now the world wants to know how he seems to finish each season with a few puffs on a celebratory cigar.
Mbappé available vs Atalanta in UEFA Super Cup, but ‘didn’t discuss’ Real Madrid role with Ancelotti
In his first tenure at the Bernabeu, he tinkered with a few formations following Jose Mourinho’s days from a 4-2-3-1 into a 4-4-2 and then a 4-3-3. Ancelotti allowed his players greater freedom while making the most of their natural abilities. He played Cristiano as a left-wing forward with more liberty to roam around rather than having his back to goal as a traditional centre-forward, unleashing his potential. In his second spell, Karim Benzema was also given a license to roam, thus becoming the main marksman. We’ll get back to these two points.
Real Madrid continue to play direct and vertical, the way their boss requires, with an emphasis on balance and defensive organisation. Kylian Mbappé will step into a highly fluid, war-tested team composed of superstars in their lower to mid-20s, who already have two Champions League titles and have won everything else there is to win in Spain. But one spot they are a touchlight of is at the centre-forward role.
The biggest difference between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons is where the goals came from. In the former, Benzema’s 23 goals were six ahead of Vinícius Júnior, and flourished as the focal point of the team. But playing without the Frenchman this past season, Jude Bellingham became the club’s leading goalscorer, two ahead of Vini Jr., as the English midfielder was given goal-scoring responsibilities, floating at the head of Real’s offensive line.
Since Mbappé won’t be taking the spot of the Brazilian left-winger, nor is he too keen on playing towards the right, we should expect Re Carlo to deploy arguably the best player in the world in a free role at the top of the attack.
Given that Benzema’s role has never been truly replaced, but more ‘covered’ in a sense by Bellingham’s bombing runs, Mbappé makes sense as the heir to this throne. With both players vying for this year’s Ballon d’Or award, it will be interesting to see how Jude reacts to being put in less advantageous positions to score, as Kylian will be occupying that space.
But one of Don Carlo’s greatest intrinsic qualities is his ability to establish and maintain great relationships with his players. If he can find a way to have these two – and Vini Jr. getting on with one another, who is to say that Ancelotti won’t grab a sixth Champions League title and beyond. Now with a free Mbappé, a new era of Galacticos has been established, and they have the right man to take them out of this world and beyond.
I’m looking forward to watching the Gattacos choke and fail