Ancelotti talks Endrick, Bellingham, Rudiger, Kroos, academy, tactics | OneFootball

Real Madrid will begin their US pre-season tour with a friendly against AC Milan later tonight as they aim to ramp up preparations for the new campaign.

On the eve of the match, Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media in a press conference during which he gave insights about the team and how things are shaping up for them heading into the new campaign.

On pre-season and expectations

Discussing what he and the team are focusing on in the pre-season, Ancelotti said: “It’s a bit particular. Little by little we are seeing the players. At the moment we have worked well and evaluated the youngsters from the youth academy.

“Everyone who arrives is in good shape. It’s not like before, now the player arrives prepared. We love to evaluate the youth players. We have a lot of quality and it’s a good time for them.”

When asked if he is worried about any aspect of preparation, especially with a long season ahead, the Real Madrid boss replied:

“The truth is that I’m not worried. Because we have a spectacular squad in all positions. Mbappé has joined, which is fantastic. As I said, we don’t have much time to prepare for the first few games, but the players will come back in good shape.

“They have a programme that starts 15 days before they arrive. The most important thing is to rest. The whole group comes back on the 7th.”

On the team

Ancelotti, though admitted, that Real Madrid will miss Toni Kroos, who retired at the end of the last season, but expressed confidence that they can replace the German.

“We are missing Kroos, but we have all the possibilities to replace him. Not like him, because he has a lot of quality, but we have plenty.”

Ancelotti looking forward for the pre-season. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

On whether Jude Bellingham has the capability to replace the German, the manager said: “Vertical play is what we wanted also with Kroos. If you get into the opposition half quickly you have more chances to create problems for the opposition.

“Where will Bellingham play? The closer he is to the box the better. We have Modric, Tchoaumeni, Valverde. We have the idea to defend well and repeat what we did well last year.”

Discussing the arrival of Endrick, who has impressed in training, Ancelotti said: “He is very young, powerful, very fast. I’m not going to ask too much of him because we have to keep in mind that it’s an exciting time for him.

“He will play 45 minutes tomorrow. We are delighted to have him with us.”

On the training ground incident that saw Antonio Rudiger go hard in on Endrick in training, Ancelotti said:

“Nothing happened. If he said something to him, I don’t know (laughs). Antonio is a fantastic player and a great team-mate.”

Ancelotti has brought along a number of young players from the Real Madrid academy on the pre-season tour. On the message he had for the prospects, the manager said:

“They are very focused. They want to learn, listen, improve. Coaching them, for me, is very nice. I like them all. They all have quality. I don’t know if they will play for Madrid, but they have a future.”

On the formation that he plans to use with the team this season, the manager said: “The system we are going to use can be a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2. Like we did last year. Sometimes it was 4-2-3-1…. We have the resources to use those systems.”

Source: AS