Real coach Carlo Ancelotti and David Alaba.
David Alaba made a mistake in Madrid's loss to Espanyol Barcelona. But coach Carlo Ancelotti protects him.
1: 2! Real Madrid had a week to forget. Only the “White Ballet” lost in the second round of the Champions League against outsider Sheriff Tiraspol. Then they lost 2-1 in the league against Espanyol Barcelona on Sunday.
ÖFB star David Alaba was used as a left-back. Most recently, he was convincing in his role as a central defender. He couldn't always do that against the Catalans.
In addition to Alaba, Nacho Fernandez and Eder Militao formed the central defense – like right-back Lucas Vazquez, they were each a total failure.
Alaba played a bad first half, let himself be overrun by his opponent at 0: 1, but at least caught himself defensively after the break. Offensive he could only set a few accents, played crosses without earnings, missed two good free-kick opportunities to equalize in the final phase.
After the game, coach Carlo Ancelotti explains his thoughts behind the new Alaba role, which he had already played at the beginning of the season: “I thought he could help offensively and think he did that too and made a lot of steam,” defends the Italians the 29 year old's performance.
He also sees the poor performance of the Viennese as a result of the performance of his teammates: “Sometimes we didn't have a good balance, but that wasn't his problem. I told Alaba to put pressure and then a midfielder has to fill his position. Sometimes we weren't that well positioned. “
Ancelotti is dissatisfied with the collective: “It was the worst game among me. We played badly, there is not much to say. We started with a defensive and offensive idea. After the goal we weren't able to rest and keep the idea. It was a mess, the team wasn't well positioned, with and without the ball. I have to honestly say: yes, it was the worst game. “
