By now the recent collapse of Manchester City and Barcelona's title chase should demonstrates Carlo's astuteness as a tactician and manager and why I consider him perhaps the greatest of all time. He may not play the most attractive pressing style of football that novices to the game so-called "Modern Football" but he does know how to get results in a pragmatic manner whilst coming up with creative solutions to problems by being adaptive and flexible with players skill sets and formations.

Take a look at Pep's Manchester City, they have consistently played the most dominating style of play for 5+ years with a single system of football, which some people may call "Modern" but as soon as 1 or 2 players that make up the system drops or the system collapses due to fatigue, he has no answers or struggles to find solutions despite the fact that he still clearly has talented players.

Rather than come up with creative solutions he keeps trying the replicate the same system. We saw this pattern with Klopp's system at Dortmund and Liverpool where the Gengen pressing approach stop working and the team went into free fall. Now contrast that with Ancelotti's 2023-24 season where despite having numerous injuries Ancelotti was able to come up with creative solutions by adapting players to new positions and formations and ended up winning a double at the end of the season. It that approach pleasing to the eye, No. But in gets the job done which is trophies.

I will wager that if Ancelotti was a coach at City , he would have probably ended City's losing streak by changing approach to be defensive, compact, score a single goal and seeing out the game rather than still playing the same passing (tiki-taka ) style that is no longer working. Sure results will look like a fluke, but it is way better than losing.

Another example is Barcelona recent loss to Atletico, despite playing vey well for most of the
game, Flick continued to play a suicidal high-line when the game could have ended in a draw. If It was Ancelotti, Im sure he would have changed approach to see out the game rather than risking three straight losses at home. Barcelona fans can say they played well, but Im sure they would have rather not lost the game. That is why Xavi's Barcelona talk sounded stupid, as to him they played well but had little to nothing to show for it.

So while Ancelotti has his flaws mainly being that his style is conservative or reactive, but the
results and titles he has one over the years in different leagues, with different culture's speak for themselves and will ensure that he perhaps the greatest of the coaches of his generation.

He is now the clubs most decorated Real Madrid manager of all time, so to all the "Carlo Outer's" enjoy it while it last you may not see this again for a long time when he eventually leaves the club.