Can Ancelotti's light touch ignite Kylian Mbappé?

"Some teams are a bit more structured in terms of the passing styles and the patterns of play, and it’s really interesting to watch, and it’s definitely difficult to play against, but I think one of our biggest strengths is that we’re so off the cuff."

— Jude Bellingham

In my spare time, when I just want a distraction that I don’t have to think about too hard, I’ve come to watching cooking videos on YouTube.

The best and most informative channel I’ve seen is Italia Squisita. It showcases some of the best and most respected chefs in Italy, teaching us how they make Italian classics. They’ve stopped doing this now, but they also used to produce reaction videos, where these renowned Italian chefs would just tear into high-profile foreigners butchering Italy’s cuisine. I think they’re a little harsh sometimes, but the overall message is clear: Italian food is about simplicity. A carbonara just needs eggs, guanciale, pecorino romano and black pepper. It’s about celebrating those flavours and keeping the emphasis on the core ingredients. If you’re doing a fancy chef trick with garlic or parsley, you’re missing the whole point. It’s about taking the highest quality ingredients and keeping it simple.

The way Italians think about food helped me understand the way one Italian seems to think about football. “The new generation, and I am not the new generation, try to complicate [things] a little bit”, Carlo Ancelotti said. “Football is not too complicated”. His methods have always been about working with the best ingredients and letting those strong flavours really do the talking without trying to put too much of his own touch on it. He’s about simplicity in letting his players do the talking.