Carlo Ancelotti said at the end of December that he didn’t plan to put Fede Valverde more as a right side. Except for an emergency, he said, something that he felt soon. As soon as Barcelona put five in the final of the Super Cup at the beginning of the second half, the Uruguayan was sent to plug the undercut. And a few days ago, the Italian slipped that he did not see the charrúa and Tchouameni at the same time in the rear. Until Antonio Rüdiger’s injury more than Lucas Vázquez, and David Alaba’s dessert, he pushed him at a very delicate moment of the season.
“The four behind,” Carletto warned after winning the City, “they had never played together. And I say more: they had never trained together. ” Two media – the one discussed Tchouameni Más Valverde – a canterano (Raúl Asencio) who in summer was the third option in what appeared in the quarry, and a side (Ferland Mendy) who had lost the hardness and indisputable ownership. Valverde, Tchouameni, Asencio and Mendy was an unprecedented quartet that, also helped – first time in the season – by the general sacrifice, he resisted a piece in a very sensitive appointment in Manchester, with Erling Haaland in front. It was the line that Clara Ancelotti had as Lucas Vázquez fell to the infirmary after the derby, a night in which Asencio and Tchouameni also resolved a poisoned second part, very exposed to the cons of Atlético.
“Two of the four defenses were midfielders, it is very difficult to adapt to those positions,” Jude Bellingham praised them in Mercuneter. “Above all, if you face one of the best strikers of this generation. Tchouameni has been brilliant and also Asencio. He has been with the first team for four months, he arrives at Etihad and plays like this. ” For the return, Ancelotti hopes to have Rüdiger, undisputed holder, and Alaba.
The precariousness that the whites in the rear for months ago, due to the injuries and the lack of signings, had supposed in recent days a point of claiming Carletto after a season with criticism of the coach for a game that had generated dissatisfaction . After the derby, he did not want to lift from the press room without leaving an observation: “Before the game, I have seen Carvajal, Militão, Rüdiger and praise the teammates. Despite the difficulties, we are doing very well. ” A phrase that sounded like a reminder of the long scarcity suffered by Madrid behind, victim of physical misfortunes and the insistence of the club not to go to the market.
Carletto’s first remedy in Central’s post after the injury of Militão in early November has always been Tchouameni, a commitment to Asencio that has meant in recent times a corrosion factor for the Italian after several improvable actions of the French. This Tuesday, the good game of the Gallic, which was warned but did not see the card, left it by driving and the coach took breast: “The very criticized Tchouameni has been spectacular,” he proclaimed after weeks of public defense of the former Monaco front to the general questioning.
Tchouameni has appeared so far in the order of priorities before Asencio, the first canterano to settle in the first template directly from Castile since at least a decade, when Nacho achieved it. The good reports of his coach in the subsidiary, Raúl González, in the usual conversations with Ancelotti also highlighted in his favor. In the Etihad, the young man, a guy thrown forward who does not shy the face to face, won the four duels he had with City players and left several key interventions. “It is still surprising by its maturity,” said Carletto. A cut to Kevin de Bruyne solved one of the mismatches suffered by Madrid in the first part when executing the high pressure.
“The more emergency, the more sacrifice this team takes out,” said Ancelotti, who, with the return of the injured, must decide how the eleven stacked. If you still prefer Tchouameni ahead of Asencio in the position of Central, if you return the French to the pivot, or if Valverde surpasses Lucas on the right side in the raw days. And, while, what can Alaba contribute.
Elections in time of necessity and with the beans counted in a defense made on the march that came out of the Etihad much more than airy.
