Ancelotti offers no excuses for Real Madrid´s sluggish start

Carlo Ancelotti offered no excuses for Real Madrid’s lacklustre start to the 2024-25 campaign.

LaLiga champions Madrid fought back to rescue a point in a 1-1 draw against Las Palmas on Thursday.

Vinicius Junior scored midway through the second half, ensuring Los Blancos remained unbeaten, though they have taken just five points out of a possible nine so far.

Ancelotti said he expected his team to play better together and blamed himself, insisting it his responsibility to make matters click.

“It is clear that we are struggling to find the soundness of last season,” he said.

“But we must not look for excuses. The schedule is tight and we have to recover quickly, because on Sunday we have another game.

“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.”

-1,8 – Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé is the player in the Top 5 European Leagues this season who has made the most shots this season (17) and who has the worst difference between Expected Goals (1.8 xG) and goals scored (none). Desperate#RM pic.twitter.com/P4YbHvAzq0

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) August 29, 2024

Kylian Mbappe endured another frustrating performance by his high standards, with the France star yet to score in LaLiga.

Mbappe had a whopping nine shots, yet only hit the target with two of then.

He has had 17 shots in total in LaLiga this term, making the 25-year-old the player to have had the most attempts in the top five European leagues, and the one with the worst expected goals (xG) underperformance (1.8 xG, no goals scored).

Ancelotti, however, says the whole team, not just individuals, must improve.

He added: “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.”

“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.”