Abraham P. Romero Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, February 23, 2024-22:05

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A few months ago, in a television program,

Marcel Desailly

admitted that the coach he would have liked to work with was

Carlo Ancelotti

.

The Frenchman won everything, Champions League with Marseille and Milan, World Cup with France... His physical superiority was such that at San Siro, in 1996, three seasons after arriving in Italy,

Arrigo Sacchi

decided that he was going to stop being midfielder to move to the central position.

From there he became even bigger and led his country in the

World Cup.

He did not work with Ancelotti, but

Carletto

, Sacchi's friend and student, now has a similar situation on his hands.

Aurélien Tchouaméni

is an extraordinary pivot for whom Real Madrid paid 80 million euros to Monaco to be

Casemiro

's replacement .

Five million euros, more or less, Milan paid for Desailly, anchor of Marseille that won the European Cup.

Few, if anyone, imagined that he could find a place between

Costacurta

,

Maldini

and company, but the years passed for the Rossonera defense and the Frenchman found himself fitting perfectly into the position.

For Tchouaméni, the medium-term future does not seem to take him away from the midfield, but it is no longer an emergency solution for Ancelotti.

Is a reality.

The Frenchman continues to be a pivot, the axis on which

Carletto

wants to build a midfield in which he can release more position to

Camavinga

and

Valverde

, with

Kroos

, for the moment, as the head of the exit of the ball on the left side and

Bellingham

in the midfield.

No one, the coaching staff believes, acts as well as the axis of the team like Tchouaméni.

"Another way to convince him..."

But

without Militao

,

Alaba

or

Rüdiger

, Ancelotti has found his own Desailly in Tchouaméni.

It is not a comparison that is made far from Valdebebas, because the first to opt for the nickname was

Luka Modric

, who mentioned the former Milan and Chelsea center back when Tchouaméni 'debuted' as a center back in October.

"Marcel Desailly," he replied in a post on social networks.

"I have told Aurélien that playing center back is an emergency, but let's see if I can find another way to convince him...", Ancelotti joked a few days ago in the Leipzig press room.

"He sees it as an emergency and he does it with pleasure, but

let's see when it's not an emergency what

he tells me..." added the Italian.

That message from the coach is not a coincidence, but rather he drops, because he wants to, a debate that he intends to continue.

He sees great central things in Tchouaméni.

"He has jump, he is strong in duels... he seems to have always played there," he explained.

Against

Leipzig

, Tchouaméni was the player who made the most interceptions, 5, and against

Girona

the one who accumulated the most clearances, 6. Against

Rayo

, in Vallecas, he was the player who won the most aerial duels (4).

The statistics against the Germans, in a setting like the Champions League, against Girona, second placed, and in a place as complicated as Vallecas, agree with Ancelotti, who this Saturday will study

Rüdiger

's feelings to decide who will accompany Nacho against the Seville.

A Seville team that, led by

Sergio Ramos

, will threaten Madrid from above.

If Rüdiger is recovered, Tchouaméni will once again be a pivot.

"You shouldn't say that."

The French midfielder is clear: he wants to be a midfielder.

But he is already assuming the needs of the team.

«Play with France as a center back?

No Please.

I think the coach is seeing this, you shouldn't say that," he joked on French television in the mixed zone of the Red Bull Arena.

Tchouaméni does not like to play as a center back and Deschamps trusts him as a starting midfielder alongside

Rabiot or Camavinga

, but the French team itself has some problems in the position.

The French coach has

Konaté

, from Liverpool, and

Saliba

, from Arsenal, as regulars, and with the alternatives of

Lucas Hernández

,

Upamecano

or

Disasi

, but in Qatar he also had other options to replace

Theo Hernández

at left back and ended up putting to Camavinga, who had not played there in Madrid.

The medium-term future, of course, gives Ancelotti the benefit of the emergency.

With Rüdiger finishing the recovery process from his injury, without Militao for more than a month, without Alaba until next season and with

Nacho

somewhat far from the best version of him, the Italian is delighted with his new center back.

"

My favorite centre-back

", as

Vinicius

calls him .

Everyone wants him to be the new Desailly.