Carlo Ancelotti spoke to the media in the press room at Real Madrid City and gave his thoughts on the Champions League group stage match against Borussia Dortmund (Tuesday, 9pm CEST): “We're not at 100%, obviously. We've had some good results, but we need to get better in terms of our overall play and defensively and in attack. We'll do it gradually. We have players who can play rock and roll football. An end-to-end game is good for us. We have more problems in possession and controlled play because we don't have players with the characteristics to play in tight spaces but we do have the characteristics for open spaces. We're focused on defending better, which is key this season. We did very well last year and the team is less solid now. We're working on making the team more solid”.

“We have a lot of options in attack, but we're working on being more compact defensively. We're not conceding many goals, but our opponents are getting a lot of chances to score. When we are solid and compact we have a good chance of winning games as sooner or later we'll have chances to score”.

The opposition
“Borussia Dortmund have changed. They've got a new coach and some players have also changed, but they've got the same footballing identity. They're intense, they play good football and they have individual and collective qualities. They're a tough opponent and they've only recently played in a Champions League final against us”.
“Football has changed. We know everything about our opponents. You see every game and there are no secrets. I have enough data to evaluate the opposing team with the games they've played in recent times”.

Bellingham
“We're happy with his work because he works hard for the team and he always competes, fights and gives his all. He hasn't scored the goals he did last season, but the surprise was last year when he scored a lot of goals that nobody expected. We've always scored goals and we're going to score them because we've got very talented players. The work he's doing is more important now than the goals he scored last year”.

“He just changed his position the other day and played on the right to look for more space to get into the second line. We're going to continue along those lines because the left is busier this year because Mbappé likes to play there and combine with Vini Jr. We think with Bellingham and with Rodrygo we can be as effective as we are on the left wing”.

Playing with three centre-backs
“We played with three centre-backs in Vigo with the ball and four defenders without it. This team doesn't defend with five and never will. It might happen at a certain moment, even with six, but as an approach, it will always be four defenders”.

Tchouameni's work
“We're trying to be more compact, to move more, to come out more and to drop back with the forwards... Everything we're working on is aimed at being as compact as possible and Tchouameni is very important because he can adapt to different positions and he wins the ball back a lot. He has to be able to read match situations better and we need to work on that because sometimes you can forget it if you don't work on it”.

Comparison with last year's team
“Physical condition is also a problem. Everyone is not up to 100%. That's it. We have to work on being compact as a team. Sometimes the idea is to press up front, but the automation... The pressing up front has been good in almost every game, but we lack solidity in the lower and mid-block. That's where the team loses a bit of solidity”.

Mbappé
“The only thing I ask of him is to score goals. I prefer him to score goals rather than press. The centre-forward's position with us hasn't changed. I ask him the same as Karim, which is to position himself well and be ready when we win the ball back to make a quick transition”.

Praise for Modrić
“He's a unique player in football and in our squad. He has tremendous experience and a unique quality in terms of ball handling, his position and the timing of games. He's providing us with a lot of help and hopefully, he can help us tomorrow, whether he starts or not”.