In an interview with the Financial Times this morning, Carlo Ancelotti has moved to praise Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale.
Los Blancos travel to the Benito Villamarin later on Saturday to face Real Betis, but in an exhaustive interview with the paper, the Italian tactician tackled subjects such as – his team’s style of play, Bale’s adaption, Ronaldo’s professionalism and the different between styles in European countries.
“Bale didn’t have a lot of problems, because he is a humble man, not very demanding. He doesn’t want too much,” Ancelotti began.
“He is starting to speak. My job is to help him be comfortable on the pitch, comfortable with teammates. We have a lot of players that speak English.
“For me, [coaching] is managing people. Managing Ronaldo is the same for me as managing Carvajal or Morata. Usually they are more professional than the others. Ronaldo is really professional.
“I don’t like to control the private life of the player, because I’m not the father, I’m not the brother.
“But I have a lot of power. Here I can decide: training at six in the morning! Training 11 in the night! But my style is not to impose. I would like to convince the players of what they are doing. This takes more time.
“The goal is to play football a little bit differently, because the culture of this club is to play spectacular football. The supporters here are exigent.
“They don’t like to see counter-attack. They like to see a team that has control of the game, with possession. We are trying to follow the history, the tradition of the club.”
The former PSG and Chelsea man then went on to comment on how Ligue 1 and the Premier League differs to La Liga.
“The problem of the English player – sometimes it’s difficult for them to understand that they don’t have to work 100 per cent in training. There are some training sessions where it’s important not to work 100 per cent. The French don’t understand why they have to work 100 per cent every day.
“In England, in general, teams have less tactical skills defensively. In France, the teams are hard, physically, because there are a lot of African players.
“And in Spain, teams have the pleasure to play football. You have to adapt your methodology to these differences.”
