Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti on Thursday said that there was no excuse for his side’s slow start to the season after the team fought back to rescue a 1-1 draw at lowly UD Las Palmas thanks to a Vinicius Junior goal late in the second half.
Ancelotti said he expected his team to play better together and blamed himself, saying that he needs to work harder and do a better job.
“It is clear that we are struggling to find the soundness of last season, but we must not look for excuses. The schedule is tight and we have to recover quickly, because on Sunday we have another game,” Ancelotti told a news conference. “I need to have a clearer strategy, to give the players more clarity in what I want. It’s costing us more than we thought. We have to work and concentrate on the path we want to take.”
Photo: AFP
After only one win in three matches to start the season, last year’s La Liga and UEFA Champions League winners are fourth in the standings with five points, four behind leaders Barcelona.
Ancelotti was asked about Kylian Mbappe, who joined Madrid last month from Paris Saint-Germain, but has yet to score in La Liga, but the coach refused to criticize individual players.
“Our game has been slow. There is not much mobility and the strikers are receiving the ball with the opposing teams already close. When we don’t have the ball, we leave too many spaces between the lines,” Ancelotti said. “I don’t think it’s a mental problem, because the team trains well. It’s just that sometimes you don’t find the best way to play... Things are not going well and we have to fix it soon.”
Elsewhere, goals from Bryan Gil, Viktor Tsygankov, Abel Ruiz and Cristhian Stuani secured Girona a commanding 4-0 victory over CA Osasuna, earning them their first win of the La Liga season.
Gil’s acrobatic volley gave last year’s surprise package Girona the lead in the 34th minute and Tsygankov extended their lead in the 53rd minute with a strike from inside the penalty area.
Three minutes later, Ruiz scored the third goal with an unstoppable strike into the top corner and substitute Stuani tapped in the fourth in stoppage-time to close the easy win.
Girona moved up to seventh in the standings with four points from three matches.
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