Carlo Ancelotti, Real Madrid’s Italian coach, praised Joselu MatoAuthor of the goal in the win against Real Sociedad (2-1), which he described as “a guarantee” and a footballer who “offers a quality that he did not have last year”, with the header into the lateral centers.
“Joselu is a guarantee, he is a player who plays very well from the back and from the front. He is very dangerous in the opponent’s area and has a fantastic header. For us it is a guarantee and we know exactly what it can bring us,” he said at a press conference.
“His role is an important position in the squad because we don’t have a player with his characteristics in attack. For us he is very important in some games because he covers the opponent’s area well, he is available in the middle and that.” “It’s no coincidence that these two score goals at home. It’s a quality we didn’t have last year, centering a header and scoring goals. With him we have another option,” he added.
Ancelotti admitted they need to correct defensive aspects after conceding another early goal forcing them to mount a comeback. “We have to evaluate it, it’s true, out of five games we started three with a goal conceded.”
“The good is that we were able to come back, the bad is that we have to avoid it because it is difficult to get into the game and then to recover we have to put in more effort. Today against an opponent who is playing.” “Very good football that cost us more, and we did that thanks to the energy of the team. We are able to reach an intensity in the games that our rivals find difficult to sustain for 90 minutes,” he analyzed.
For the Madrid coach, his team didn’t have a bad first half despite being behind at half-time. “We tried to press high, but Real Sociedad have a very high defensive line and we had to attack more directly.”
“The game was good, the goal conceded was a move we had in mind because they do it regularly and we had talked about it, but the opponent has the quality to do it. In the second we didn’t change much, but we held on.” “It was very difficult for them to pick up the pace,” he said.
He praised the level of the Japanese Take Kubo, who made Fran García suffer in defense but his player returned the favor with two assists. “He suffered because Kubo played very well and was very dangerous, but in the end he provided two fantastic assists that allowed us to win the game.” And he played down the lack of a goal from Brazilian Rodrygo Goes. “I liked it because he positioned himself very well between the lines and it wasn’t easy. He, like Valverde, is one of the players most affected by the break because he arrived on Thursday afternoon and it is not so easy to recover from this trip.” . He didn’t score, but no problem.”
Neither did Englishman Jude Bellingham, who ended his streak of four consecutive games with a goal. “He played a continuous game, but he didn’t reach the opponent’s area like last time with Brahim, but he worked a lot. The fact that Real had advanced the line very far made it more difficult for them to reach the opponent’s area with uncontrolled play.” . We have a lot of opportunities to score, what we have to avoid and what we know we can’t start with is a 1-0 loss.”
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