Ancelotti goes on attack but Real failings so clear

Spanish football pundits have a neat phrase called the ‘ataque del entrenador’.

While difficult to translate exactly into English, it describes a brainwave by a coach who surprises everyone before a game with what he thinks will be a tactical or selection masterstroke.

As suggested by the word ‘attack’, these attempted masterstrokes seldom work as hoped.

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti had one such ataque del entrenador before Saturday’s La Liga clash with Barcelona at the Camp Nou, and paid for it with a 2-1 defeat which was well deserved despite the loud complaints from the defeated camp afterwards.

Ancelotti had been expected to start still not fully fit €101 million man Gareth Bale — but surprised with his decision to send out the Welsh winger as a roving centre-forward. Fielding defender Sergio Ramos in central midfield was an even bigger gamble. Neither bet paid off.

Bale was switched to the wing after an ineffective opening spell, and even there had little impact on the proceedings. Madrid only got into the game when he was replaced by Karim Benzema — a specialist central striker — with an hour gone.

Ramos, who last played midfield in a 2005 Madrid loss at home to Racing Santander, spent Saturday evening futilely chasing Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez and Cesc Fabregas. He was lucky to avoid a second yellow card for a frustrated hack at Iniesta, before Ancelotti avoided the inevitable red by calling him ashore on 55 minutes.

Doing his post-game press conference, the Italian must have known he had cocked up, but instead of accepting his mistakes he went on the attack against referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco — who had taken charge of a record eighth clasico.

“The penalty (on Ronaldo) seemed very clear to me,” Ancelotti said. “Everyone saw it, except the referee. I do not understand how an international referee could not see it.”

The Ronaldo incident could have gone either way — and Barca had similar claims for a penalty in the first half, when Pepe challenged Fabregas inside the area.

More obvious was that Ancelotti was trying to lead the media reaction, as he had done pre-game when he talked of how his team would be “brave” and look to attack.

That turned out to be a bluff, as Ancelotti was already planning his defensive ‘masterstroke’. An irony was that playing a centre-half in midfield recalled Jose Mourinho’s positioning of Pepe during the famous 2011 Champions League semi-final first leg against Barcelona at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. That experiment also went badly — with Pepe sent off for a stamp on Dani Alves and Mourinho claiming a conspiracy against him and his team which reached as far as Unicef.

Ancelotti has regularly talked of how he is different than Mourinho, but his attempt to deflect attention from his mistake by blaming the referee was a ploy straight from the playbook of the ‘Special One’.

This media management policy worked to an extent — the cover photo of local sports paper AS on Sunday had Ronaldo claiming a penalty. But it was also a real pity, as Ancelotti was supposed to be “a breath of fresh air” after all the tumult of recent seasons at the Bernabeu. Barca coach Gerardo Martino declined to discuss the referee afterwards, preferring to play down the importance of his side’s six-point lead over Madrid. But many of his players were happy to cite Madrid’s hypocrisy, including Fabregas, Sergio Busquets and — most vehemently and articulately — Dani Alves.

“Ramos should have complained about the second yellow card he was let off,” said Alves. “Always the same, always this debate.”

It was especially unfortunate that “this debate” took attention away from match-winner Neymar, who was excellent in his first clasico. The €65m Brazilian scored an excellent opening goal, and provided the pass which freed Alexis Sanchez to chip Madrid keeper Diego Lopez for an outstanding clinching goal. The 21-year-old Neymar will surely receive plenty more plaudits in the coming years. But Ancelotti needs to buck up his ideas. And fast.