Ancelotti on Real Madrid transfer strategy and defensive crisis

Real Madrid are facing a crucial run of games in the coming weeks, but are down to the bare bones in defence. After Antonio Rudiger suffered an injury on Saturday night, forcing him to come off, David Alaba was the next to go down on Tuesday morning, as he suffered a hamstring injury in training, adding to the absences of Eder Militao and Dani Carvajal.

Los Blancos face Leganes in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals on Wednesday, followed by clashes against Atletico Madrid (H), Manchester City (A), Osasuna (A) and the return leg in the Champions League the following week. Carlo Ancelotti confirmed that Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe were also out as it stands.

Ancelotti was asked why Real Madrid did not act in the transfer market, despite their injury issues.

“What has happened is that unfortunately, we have lost two players in the last two days. Obviously we were not planning for those two injuries. It is an emergency situation that we will deal with as best we can, we did not plan for the injury to Rudiger. We have players that can cover, Jacobo has come back from a long time out injured, and can contribute.”

The Italian was also keen to give his backing to young defender Jacobo Ramon, who was ahead of Raul Asencio in the pecking order at the start of the season.

“What we have to do is manage an emergency. We have lost two players and we have an emergency. The young players have a chance to show their quality. We showed trust in Asencio against Osasuna, and we will show trust in Jacobo.”

Fede Valverde has often filled in where needed in recent months and years, but Ancelotti had not plans to use him in the middle of defence.

“Valverde will not play at centre-back. He might play some of these games at right-back, but not at centre-back. We have Jacobo, we have Asencio, and we have Tchouameni that we could play at centre-back.”

His use of Aurelien Tchouameni in defence has come in for heavy criticism in recent months, with many feeling that Asencio deserved a spot ahead of the Frenchman. Ancelotti was asked what he felt gave Tchouameni the edge to play at the back over other options.

“At a defensive level, he is very good. He positions himself well, he has a good tactical knowledge, it helps that he is a defensive pivot. It may be that he plays well there, or a little less well, but he has always done his job. I don’t recall a major error that has cost us. Taking into account he played there a lot last season too, I don’t remember anything.”

Either way, it looks as if Ancelotti will be forced to use Tchouameni in the next couple of weeks, unless he decides to promote Jacobo ahead of other options, which would be a major surprise given he is yet to play more than 12 minutes of senior football for the club. It has also been suggested Ferland Mendy could be used in central defence in emergency situations.