Bellingham as Kroos replacement: Ancelotti shares his new tactics

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has given fans an insight on what to expect from his squad next season as the search for Toni Kroos continues.

Madrid will begin their US pre-season tour with a friendly against AC Milan on Wednesday and Ancelotti was quizzed about his squad and preparation for the new season.

Speaking about the team, Ancelotti, though admitted, that Real Madrid will miss Toni Kroos, who retired at the end of the last season, but expressed confidence that they can replace the German.

“We are missing Kroos, but we have all the possibilities to replace him. Not like him, because he has a lot of quality, but we have plenty.”

On whether Jude Bellingham has the capability to replace the German, the manager said: “Vertical play is what we wanted also with Kroos. If you get into the opposition half quickly you have more chances to create problems for the opposition.

“Where will Bellingham play? The closer he is to the box the better. We have Modric, Tchoaumeni, Valverde. We have the idea to defend well and repeat what we did well last year.”

Ancelotti also discussed the arrival of Endrick, who has impressed in training.

The Former AC Milan manager said: “He is very young, powerful, very fast. I’m not going to ask too much of him because we have to keep in mind that it’s an exciting time for him.

“He will play 45 minutes tomorrow. We are delighted to have him with us.”

On the formation that he plans to use with the team this season, the manager said: “The system we are going to use can be a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2. Like we did last year. Sometimes it was 4-2-3-1…. We have the resources to use those systems.”