From Sacchi to Ancelotti, from Desailly to Tchouaméni: a reconversion that is no longer "emergency"

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 a midfielder and move to the center back position.. From there he became even bigger and led his country in the World Cup. He did not work with Ancelotti, but Carletto, a friend and student of Sacchi, 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 central defender 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. This message from the coach is not a coincidence, but rather he drops, because he wants to, a debate that he intends to continue. See great central things in Tchouaméni. «He has jump, he is strong in duels…. It seems like he has 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 over the top. 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, yes, 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 his best version, the Italian is delighted with his new center back. “My favorite centre-back”, as Vinicius tells him. Everyone wants him to be the new Desailly.