Cappa: "Ancelotti opened the cage to the players and allows them not to be tied to any tactic"

The real Madrid he abuses the withdrawal, he does not press up, he has a high capacity for resistance to cling to the games, he suffers, he comes back, sometimes he plays and plays from behind to the sides and in others he breaks the games with direct play, on the counterattack. Many things are said and many analyzes are made of Ancelotti’s Real Madrid style of play. What the Italian coach highlights is that there is chemistry between the players. There is the virtue of having a mix of veteran and young footballers that allows him to manage with different registers within the same game.

What is so special about Real Madrid that they have won every game at the start of the season? Apart from the character and rebelliousness that he showed last season to become European champion, is there a strategy? A tactical richness? Simeone, after the derby, commented, by way of praise, perhaps with some impotence for having choked on the game, that Real Madrid wins with a block behind and the forcefulness. Ancelotti accepted the compliment, he did not want to delve into his approach or style of play.

The real Madrid reaches the national team break, the first stretch of the season before the World Cup, with full of victories. Nine out of nine. What have you done to be a reliable team? Angel Cappa, former soccer coach and analyst, talks to El Confidencial to read Ancelotti’s style and what he proposes. What he values, above tactics and strategies, is simple football: “Real Madrid is based, above all, on the players’ ability to inspire. Ancelotti allows them to create. Without being tied to any tactic. He opened the cage for players to fly freely. He re-naturalized the gameas if they were playing in the neighborhood”.

neighborhood football

In the era of laboratory football and ‘big data’, everything is dissected physically and tactically to get closer to defeat. Real Madrid pulls instinct and that is what, according to Cappa, serves to mark the differences and maintain a winning dynamic: “It strikes me that at the height of the technology stage, with Madrid, we are returning to neighborhood football. encouraging and hopeful. When you have those footballers, who are ‘cracks’, superlatives, the best thing is for them to play. When that is generated in the team, the substitutes also perform and play with security and confidence. Camavinga leaves, for example, from the bench and is encouraged to play football well. Then there are the cases of Kroos and Modric, who do not age and should be embalmed. They are improving Tchouaméni, who seems to me to be another talent, but who still has a hard time dealing with the position of central midfielder. With the ball he is better than Casemirobut to play in front of central defenders it’s a bit messy.”

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The secret of Real Madrid is that it has no secrets. There is a coach put talent first and some footballers who are committed to being a block. It is a Real Madrid that is rolling, with footballers who have been together for a long time, who can play by heart and if it works, Ancelotti is not complicated. This is how Angel Cappa sees it: “It’s a very well-balanced team. Deep down they have everything. The central defenders may not be defined yet. But they’re a good team, based on inspiration and they have speed up front. I’m not inside, but I imagine Ancelotti he tells the players to take this naturally. Sometimes he presses high, sometimes he doesn’t. There are times when he attacks, times when he defends, counterattacks, has possession… He knows how to adapt to all the circumstances of the match. There is talk of a direct Real Madrid. What is direct play? Soccer is not direct. Sometimes it’s fast, slow, lateral, indirect… The main football concept is deception. Matches have many facets and Real Madrid takes advantage of them. I once said that the best future for football is to go back to the past. Real Madrid is the naturalization of the game. What I would like is for it to shrink a little more to be in less danger. Ancelotti had fun, as a player, with that. That’s why he misses me.”

With only two signings, Rüdiger and Tchouaméni, Real Madrid has reinforced a squad that has more muscle. He has added more physicality to a team that seeks solidity and consistency. The rule that muscle defends better is not shared by Cappa: “Talent is what defines great defenders. Physique accompanies. I keep what he said one day Ferdinand Signorini: “One gram of a neuron is more important than ninety kilos of muscle”. sanchisin heads up, was to enjoy. Iron anticipated the play. Robert Carlos he took the striker to the ground that was most convenient for him. The muscle thing is debatable, but I trust more in the talent. He defends himself well or badly. There is the derby, which was a quiet game for Madrid. He didn’t suffer.”

To end this review of Ángel Cappa at the start of the undefeated Real Madrid, who wins games without the injured Benzema, his opinion on the impact that Vinícius has: “He has progressed a lot. He is a player who faces forty thousand times, who has speed, skill and who now raises his head. He is a footballer very difficult for defenders to bear. The guy is on alert the whole game.”

The real Madrid he abuses the withdrawal, he does not press up, he has a high capacity for resistance to cling to the games, he suffers, he comes back, sometimes he plays and plays from behind to the sides and in others he breaks the games with direct play, on the counterattack. Many things are said and many analyzes are made of Ancelotti’s Real Madrid style of play. What the Italian coach highlights is that there is chemistry between the players. There is the virtue of having a mix of veteran and young footballers that allows him to manage with different registers within the same game.