Ancelotti: “Vinicius is a provocateur player”

Vinicius Junior is facing accusations of provoking opponents because of his style on the field, and Carlo Ancelotti spoke about this in the press conference before Real Madrid’s match with Cadiz on Thursday.

The Brazil international received some tough challenges in Los Blancos’ 3-2 defeat to Rayo Vallecano on Monday.

Ancelotti admitted that Real Madrid have not been affected in the past few games after their first defeat of the season 3-2 away to RB Leipzig in the Champions League.

“Although the last period was not good and this bothers us, the defeat against Leipzig affected us, but the rest was very good,” Ancelotti added.

He continued, “We achieved the goal of taking the lead in the [group] Champions League and that cost us some absences like [Karim] Benzema or [Thibaut] Courtois in some matches. I’m not here to look for excuses, even though the last stretch wasn’t good and we want to put him behind us for tomorrow’s game.”

This is Real Madrid’s last game before the 2022 World Cup break, but Ancelotti believes all his players are focused on facing Cadiz.

“I don’t see players thinking about [the World Cup] in training,” the Italian coach noted. They are competitive and do not lift their legs. Nobody talked about it in conversation. The World Cup is there, but we’ve done well so far.

“A month ago, the team was doing very well and no one thought about it and the World Cup was already close.”

“I agree, it seems that Vinicius is a provocateur and he is the one who gets more fouls, more slaps, more pushes,” Ancelotti said about the Vinicius problem.

He added: “The reality is different and we must respect it, whether in football or personally. Not only high-quality players, it is necessary to [respect] all [players]. Fair play is not often talked about in Spain but it is much more common in other countries. It could be the most important thing in football.”

source: Marca