Real Madrid Boss Ancelotti Criticizes Players After Surprise Mallorca Draw

Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti criticized his players following Sunday’s surprise 1-1 draw with Mallorca, demanding that they both concentrate more and defend better moving forward among other things.

The visitors took the lead with barely a quarter of an hour down on the clock in Son Moix through Rodrygo, only to concede an equalizer eight minutes into the second half from Muriqi.

Dominated in midfield for the most part, many felt that Madrid were second best and Ancelotti also thought that it “wasn’t a good game” from his men despite them starting the game well.

“We need more balance. We’ve already said it before, we are very offensive but balance is fundamental,” Ancelotti further stated.

Asked how he will find said balance, Ancelotti answered that it is vital the players are “thinking the same way”.

“When we win the ball back, we have to think about it all together. You may think that it is the problem of the striker, but it may be the problem of the defense, or of the midfielders.

“It is not a problem of one, two or three. It is a problem of a team that in this match did not understand it was a key aspect. Mallorca played a great game defensively, better than us. The draw is [the] correct [score],” the Italian added.

While Ancelotti believed a stalemate was a fair result, he didn’t particularly like it.

“Last year I was happy with some draws, but not today,” he said. “We could have done much better. I don’t want to make excuses. We just had to do better, with more attitude. You can learn from these matches. It is clear where the problem lies.”

“The problem is that the team was too open,” Ancelotti explained at another point of his post-match interview. “We have to concentrate more, as we usually do. It is neither a physical nor a mental problem.”

Sticking with the same XI that won the UEFA Super Cup midweek, Ancelotti noted that “last year we didn’t make many changes, but when we enter the Champions League we will rotate more”.

“When talking about the defensive aspect, we were not good … We have to improve it. We are talking about attitude and collective commitment,” he concluded.