Real Madrid News
Former Real Madrid sporting director urges Florentino Perez to dismiss Ancelotti after this season
Carlo Ancelotti’s future at Real Madrid has been a hot topic of discussion, and former Los Blancos player and sporting director, Predrag Mijatovic, has expressed a strong opinion on the matter.
According to him, regardless of how the current season unfolds, Ancelotti should step down as the club’s manager once the campaign concludes.
Mijatovic believes it is time for Real Madrid to make a managerial change, and he has directly advised club president Florentino Perez to consider a different approach for the future.
While acknowledging Ancelotti’s success over two spells at the Santiago Bernabeu, Mijatovic feels that the Italian’s time in charge should come to an end.
Praise and then the bombshell
He pointed out that Ancelotti has won more trophies than any other coach in the club’s history, a record that may never be surpassed due to the increasing impatience in modern football.
“I said recently, that Ancelotti did a great job in two spells at Real Madrid. He is the coach who has won the most titles and I don’t think anyone will surpass him,” he said as quoted by MARCA.
“This is because football is going in this direction where every day there is less patience with coaches and players. No one will have such a long career to be able to surpass him in terms of titles won.”
From his perspective, Real Madrid needs fresh ideas and a different vision to move forward. He believes that after such a long period of dominance, Ancelotti may no longer have anything revolutionary to offer.
For this reason, Mijatovic urges Perez to make the decision to appoint a new coach. “I think that, regardless of how this season ends, Ancelotti should leave Real Madrid,” he added.
Recommending Xabi Alonso
He also has a clear preference for who should replace Ancelotti. In his view, Xabi Alonso should be the club’s primary target. Alonso, who has been making a name for himself as a manager, is seen as the ideal candidate to lead Real Madrid into a new era.
“Why should this be Ancelotti’s last season at Real Madrid? He’s been here for too long and has won so many titles. Now it’s hard for him to bring anything more, anything new, anything revolutionary.”
For Mijatovic, the decision is straightforward. Ancelotti has already cemented his legacy but now is the right moment for Real Madrid to embrace a fresh start with a new leader at the helm.
Real Madrid’s adventure so far under new coach Jose Mourinho has been far from perfect and this fact shouldn’t be lost even after the team’s brilliant comeback win over AS Roma in midweek.
However, there are areas where Los Blancos have shown a clear improvement under Mourinho, when compared to previous bosses such as Xabi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa.
One of those areas has been set plays, with Real Madrid appearing far more potent from set pieces this season.
A clear improvement from last season
As reported by Diario AS, the three goals in Rome, all from Arda Guler corners inside a seven-minute blitz, were the perfect advert for the work being done at Valdebebas.
Those strikes took Real Madrid’s set-piece tally to seven goals in just ten matches this season. Four of them have come in La Liga, one from a corner and three from free kicks, with the trio in Rome completing the haul.
It is a striking figure when set against last season’s return. Under Alonso and Arbeloa, Madrid managed 12 set-piece goals across the entire campaign, all in La Liga, split evenly between six from corners and six from free kicks.
On current trends, this side looks well placed to surpass that number comfortably.
The reason behind Real Madrid’s improvement
Attacking set pieces are led at Valdebebas by Pedro Machado, with the whole coaching staff involved and Mourinho himself giving the final green light on every routine.
Defending them, meanwhile, falls to Sami Khedira, though it is treated as a collective effort. Mourinho’s appreciation of that teamwork was clear when Bellingham headed in a Guler free kick against Espanyol, prompting the manager to leap up and embrace his assistants.
Machado, one of Mourinho’s most trusted lieutenants, has followed him from Fenerbahce to Benfica and now Madrid, part of a backroom team blending experience with young, ambitious talent.
On the pitch, Guler is the undisputed master when available, his left foot the key weapon, with Bernardo Silva, Trent Alexander-Arnold and even Diomande also trusted to initiate attacks.
Such meticulous strategy has helped Real Madrid turn into a potent side from set-pieces this season.
