Carlo Ancelotti said his Real Madrid team “should be worried” after they were beaten 3-1 at home by AC Milan in the Champions League, in their first game since losing 4-0 to Barcelona in El Clásico.
Malick Thiaw‘s header put Milan 1-0 up at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday before Vinícius Júnior levelled with a penalty, and Álvaro Morata made it 2-1 to Milan before half-time.
Madrid pushed for an equaliser before Tijani Reijnders increased Milan’s lead on the counter-attack, to make it two losses for Madrid in four Champions League games.
“We should be worried because the team isn’t playing well,” Ancelotti told Movistar. “We have to be more solid, more compact. We’ve conceded a lot of goals.”
The defeat leaves Madrid struggling in midtable in the new Champions League league phase, while in LaLiga they’re already nine points behind leaders Barca.
“It isn’t about being patient or not, the reality is what you see on the pitch, which is that we’re missing something,” Ancelotti said in his post-match news conference. “Worry in these moments is normal. It will be a long night, but that’s what we have to do, think, all of us, about improving things.
“We’ve conceded nine goals [in three games] and that’s too many for a team which built its strength on solidity.”
Ancelotti said Madrid’s attack — which featured Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Junior as a front two against Milan — isn’t the issue.
“We had a lot of chances,” he said. “The problem for me isn’t that. Probably we lacked being clinical, but the main problem we have to fix is how easily our opponents are creating opportunities.
“When you aren’t solid, you have to be more organised. You can’t say my players are lazy, but right now we aren’t able to work together effectively.”
Ancelotti denied that the atmosphere in the Madrid dressing room has suffered this season, since the summer arrival of star Mbappé.
“No, the dressing room is healthy,” he said.” There’ll be a lot of criticism, about our attitude, training… What critics think, we have to accept. We aren’t doing well. We want to do better. Like this it’s hard to get to the end of the season.”
“Each year, there are difficult moments where you have to struggle, fight, think. What isn’t normal is that this team had a good run, and has fallen very fast. That’s part of football. When you think everything is perfect you fall, but the good thing about football is that you can react.”
“I think the last two defeats are inexplicable,” goalkeeper Andriy Lunin said. “We have to analyse it well and react. We have to recover.
“We understand that we are Madrid, that we have to win always, there are no excuses.”
Madrid host Osasuna in LaLiga on Saturday before the international break, while their next Champions League game is away at Liverpool on Nov. 27.
