Ancelotti hopes Xabi Alonso coaches Real Madrid ‘one day’

Carlo Ancelotti stated he hopes Xabi Alonso can coach Real Madrid “one day” after the Bayer Leverkusen boss was linked with the place following Real’s 3-1 derby defeat to Atletico Madrid on Sunday.

Alonso, 41 — who twice performed for Ancelotti, together with on the finish of a five-year spell as a Madrid participant between 2009 and 2014 — has guided Leverkusen to second within the Bundesliga this season, degree on factors with league leaders Bayern Munich.

– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, extra (U.S.)

ESPN reported in May that Alonso is the main candidate to take over from Ancelotti, whose contract on the Santiago Bernabeu expires in June 2024.

“I had Xabi Alonso as a player,” Ancelotti stated in a information convention on Tuesday forward of Madrid’s LaLiga sport with Las Palmas. “He has a high-level knowledge of football. He’s doing very well with Bayer Leverkusen. He has that reading [of the game], that capacity.

“I feel in the future — for Raul [Gonzalez], for [Alvaro] Arbeloa, for Xabi Alonso — their largest want is to teach Real Madrid and I need that for them as a result of I do know all of them, I really like all of them. Let’s hope that in the future they are often Real Madrid coaches.”

Alonso starred for some of modern football’s top managers — Rafa Benitez, Jose Mourinho, Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola — as a midfielder at Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, before beginning his coaching career at Madrid’s academy.

He spent three seasons in charge of boyhood club Real Sociedad’s reserve team before taking over at Leverkusen in October 2022, taking them from a relegation battle to Europa League qualification.

Ancelotti faced criticism for his team selection and tactics in Sunday’s LaLiga loss to Atletico after leaving forward Joselu out of the starting eleven and picking Jude Bellingham in attack alongside Rodrygo, with Luka Modric and Toni Kroos in midfield.

“[Criticism] is a part of the job of a coach,” Ancelotti said. “When you are Real Madrid supervisor, it is regular that you just get criticism when issues do not go nicely… I’ve to guage, in a self-critical manner, what we have executed, what we’re doing nicely, which is loads, and what we did not do nicely towards Atletico Madrid.

“I have to evaluate things with balance,” he stated. “Fortunately that’s in my genes, I’m a balanced person. It isn’t that difficult. It isn’t about doubting everything. The team had won six games out of six, with all the [injury] problems we’ve had.”

Ancelotti has ditched his regular 4-3-3 formation this season, opting to make use of a midfield diamond to get one of the best out of Bellingham and compensate for his lack of attacking choices.

However the group’s defence was left uncovered towards Atletico, with all three objectives coming from headers — two from Álvaro Morata and one from Antoine Griezmann — after crosses into the field.

“Every system has its weakness,” the Italian stated. “The midfield diamond isn’t perfect, neither is 4-2-2 or 5-3-2… This [formation] allows us to press more, with more energy to win the ball back, but the weakness is sometimes [the opponent] can find you out of position when they cross, because the midfielders don’t always have time to get back and help the defence. When something is clear, you can fix it.”