Mr. Ancelotti: How He Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Pragmatism

Paolo Bandini wrote:Carlo Ancelotti had a hard time putting it all into context. The Real Madrid manager lavished praise on his players after seeing them rout Bayern Munich 4-0 in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, stating that they had played “the perfect game”. But when you already own four European Cup winners’ medals (two as a player, two as a coach), then even perfection comes in different grades. Asked if this was the best match of his career, Ancelotti could only reply: “It’s difficult for me to say”.

He must at least have been satisfied to know that this victory was achieved by the book. Or by his books, to be precise. Ancelotti has co-authored both an autobiography and a tactical coaching guide in the last four years, and Tuesday night’s performance seemed to make reference to each of them.

As Gazzetta dello Sport pointed out, the latter book mapped out Madrid’s third goal quite precisely. On page 98 of My Christmas Tree is a diagram showing one way to open up an opponent. “Attacker No9 goes to support the full-back [on the left] and the other forward, No11, moves wide on the far side,” reads the accompanying text description. “The trequartista, No10, attacks the space created [in the middle].”

On Tuesday the parts of Nos 9, 10 and 11 were played in order by Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema. The Portuguese and French forwards dragged Bayern’s defenders apart as they streamed forwards on the counter, allowing the Welshman the freedom of the middle of the pitch. After all three had reached the edge of the box, Bale squared the ball for Ronaldo to slot home. A similar move had also earned Madrid the corner from which they scored their opening goal.

If these were the specifics, then Ancelotti’s autobiography, published in Italian under the title Preferisco La Coppa (I Prefer The Cup) provided the broader context. In it he references time and again the importance of maintaining an even-keel demanour through all the various challenges that football – and indeed life – will throw at you.

Quoting the master’s thesis that he wrote while qualifying for his coaching badges at Coverciano, Ancelotti wrote: “You must take care to avoid creating anxiety in the pursuit of results at all costs; this is harmful and counterproductive, if you wish to obtain a high level of performance.”

Level-headedness comes naturally to Ancelotti, a fact that he explains in the context of his upbringing. Growing up on his parents’ modest farm, he learned from a young age that seeds sown one year could not be harvested until the next, and that milk sold to a local dairy would not be paid for until it had been successfully turned into cheese. “In the meantime … you had to be patient,” he noted in his autobiography. “The art of keeping your cool was essential.”

That is why Ancelotti was able to appear so relaxed during the build-up to the game at Allianz Arena, laughing and smiling his way through the endless pre-game interviews. “The most dangerous thing in football is fear,” he told France Football on the eve of the match. “If you think too much about your opposition you are dead.”

Which is not to suggest that he did not think of them at all. Ancelotti spent enough time studying Bayern to pick out a weakness in the way that they defended at set-pieces, one which Sergio Ramos would exploit twice on Tuesday night. The Germans, by contrast, failed to score despite winning 24 corners across the two legs.

It was just one of many ways in which Ancelotti out-coached his opposite number, Pep Guardiola. There was fascination in the build-up to this game about the fact that two such successful managers had never faced one another before. So emphatic was the Italian’s eventual victory that some reporters even asked him on Tuesday night if he had killed Guardiola’s Tiki-Taka once and for all.

Ancelotti rejected that suggestion out of hand. He has been around long enough to understand that every tactical system has its flaws, and that there are many different ways to win a game.

He has not always held such a broad view. At the outset of his coaching career, Ancelotti was committed to 4-4-2 – the formation in which he had thrived as a player under Arrigo Sacchi at Milan. He even turned down the chance to sign Roberto Baggio at Parma in 1997 because the player wanted to line up as a trequartista. It remains one of his most enduring regrets.

But if Ancelotti has gone on to enjoy such a fine career then it is because he is able to learn from his mistakes. He could have been fired from his first job in management, at Reggiana in Serie B, after failing to win any of his first seven games in charge. Instead the club’s directors decided to give him one more chance, and he finished the season by securing promotion to the top flight.

He has understood over time that a manager needs to be pragmatic, adopting whatever solutions fit his team’s circumstances. As Ancelotti himself tells it, his greatest tactical innovation – the Christmas Tree formation with which he achieved so much success at Milan – was formed out of “pure coincidence”.

The Rossoneri had bought Clarence Seedorf, Dario Simic and Rivaldo in the summer of 2002, while Andriy Shevchenko was out injured. Blessed with an abundance of creative players, but lacking options up front, Ancelotti was obliged to devise something new. The key moment came when Andrea Pirlo, previously known as an attacking midfielder, suggested that the manager try deploying him in a holding role.

That season would end with Milan winning the Champions League. For Ancelotti, the experience was instructive. As he would write in his autobiography: “Over time, I learned that there is always a way of allowing a lot of great and talented players to work together and get along.”

It is why he is such a natural fit in Madrid, with its constellation of individual stars. Nursing a 1-0 lead from the first leg, many managers might have opted to adopt a defensive stance in Munich. Instead he sent out a team featuring all five of Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Luka Modric and Angel di María. And then he told them it was OK to let their opponents keep the ball.

Rather than design his team to neutralise their opponents strengths, he had instead chosen to celebrate Madrid’s own. “Bayern are a great team with a different philosophy from ours,” he explained at his pre-game press conference. “But if I have Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale then I have to use the speed of the counter-attack to get the best from them.”

That he most certainly did, the trio launching one breakneck attack after another en route to their 3-0 half-time lead. By that point, the tie was already effectively settled. Madrid were heading to their first Champions League final in 12 years.

“Ancelotti deserves all the credit,” said Ronaldo afterwards. “He has changed everything.”

Those words were interpreted in some quarters as a dig at the Italian’s predecessor, José Mourinho. But perhaps they were simply intended as they appeared, as praise for a remarkable coach. This will be Ancelotti’s fourth time as a manager in the final of Europe’s top club competition – equaling the record shared by Miguel Muñoz, Marcello Lippi & Alex Ferguson. He is one of only eight men ever to lead two different teams to this stage.

Now Ancelotti has the opportunity to help Madrid to achieve something even more impressive – La Decima – the club’s 10th European Cup win. Not even he could have any trouble putting that into context as a high point of an already remarkable career.