He was poor against top opponents in La Liga. This is a fact.
No , Carlo problem was always the end of the season in la liga...he wasn't poor by any means
sure Atletico turned to a boogie team under Simeone and playing them is a nightmare now but big teams & Poor... dig the results and put them into context
Real Madrid have now appointed 21 managers since 1996.
Arsenal have had 19 managers since 1894.
And more before that.. we had 6 managers during our 5 back to back CL... it's who we are nothing to do with consistency otherwise we wouldn't have won all that
only the 60's we had one manager for a long time and that's it...
Just look at the stats from last season. He was bad against top teams.
I am not talking about Ancelotti's qualities as a manager or want to compare him to Benitez (he is an outstanding manager and certainly better than Rafa) but results do not lie. It is not like RM was destroying quality opponents left and right last season and that changed only after Benitez got appointed.
Mate... put the results into context please forget the stats...
in his first year beat Atletico home & away 3-0 & 2-0 in the cup & beat Barcelona in the final without Ronaldo , again he beat Atletico in the CL final ... he beat Bayern Munich home & away as well
in the league he lost his first meeting with Simeone at home 1-0.. that was September still teething process a month later lost away to Barca 2-1
In March he met Atletico away and draw 2-2 and considering THEY WERE THE CHAMPIONS.. not a bad results and he beat them twice in the Copa semi-final
He lost to Barca 4-3 in the match where Ramos was red carded and you won with 2 penalties.. again not as bad playing Barca with 10 men ..
Smoked Seville 7-3 and lost to them 2-1, Beat Valencia 3-2 & draw 2-2
I don't consider the above bad results at all.. Carlo throw away the league towards the end due the calculation between you , us & Atletico he was unable to focus on both and that made the stats a bit awkward like losing to Celta the same team he smoked 3-0 earlier, drawing vs Valladolid (I remember when Marcelo played as a striker ! )
How is this doing bad against big teams ??? i would accept Carlo teams tend to lose stamina towards the end of the league season but doing bad ? come on
following season
lost to Atletico 2-1 early than went on a magnificent unbeaten run including the Clasico 3-1 win.. the biggest over Barcelona in recent years until he lost Modric to injury & than Ramos & James , it all started with the first game we Lost to Valencia 2-1, in the 4th of January Lost to Atletico 4-0 after that and we just couldn't find any replacement to Modric..
we screwed up going into the season without a sub for Modric and if you downplay Modric important i ask you to head to Modric thread in the forum and see all of your opinion on Modric in the first part of last season... he was by far the best midfielder in Europe and that is not an exaggeration
however if you want stats than here it is
Barca a win & a loss
Atletico two defeats in la liga , a draw and a win in the CL , a draw & a loss in the Copa
a defeat & a draw vs Valencia
two wins vs Seville
a draw and a narrow loss vs Juve a team we NEVER beat in the CL except once
Apart from Atletico under Simeone i don't see it as bad as people make it ...especially that most of the heavy defeats came when he didn't have Modric and started to test with Isco , Lucas Silva etc and nothing came close to substituting the brilliant Croat and if you follow Carlo throughout his history his strong base for tactics always been the midfield.. whether in the Xabi-Modric-Di Maria or the Pirlo-Gattuso -Seedorf.. probably because that's where he played
Would having Modric fit or a proper sub for him made a difference ? i'm quite sure it would but that lies with the Club hierarchy not Carlo he did all he can with what he had available that's why he remain adored & popular with us
