Constitution Hill back on track for Christmas return to action – ‘Miles better’​

Carlo Ancelotti praised Kylian Mbappé‘s performance after the Real Madrid forward scored from a new, left-sided role in their 3-0 LaLiga win at Leganés on Sunday.

Mbappé put Madrid ahead in the 43rd minute at Butarque, converting Vinícius Júnior‘s pass from close range, before Federico Valverde and Jude Bellingham secured the three points in the second half.

It was Mbappé’s first Madrid goal in five games, having switched positions with Vinícius, starting on the left side of the attack.

“It was a good game from beginning to end,” Ancelotti said in his postmatch news conference. “The team was solid and focused. We changed the positions of the forwards a bit, with Mbappé on the outside, and he did well.

“Vinicius did well too, on the inside. We opened the scoring, and after that the team controlled the game well.”

Mbappé has now scored seven goals in 12 league appearances for Madrid but had faced criticism for his performances in recent weeks, going four matches without finding the net.

“I started in a different position than in recent games,” Mbappé said afterward. “But as I said the first day I arrived here, I can play in different positions. Today was different, and maybe in the next game it will be different again. I’m ready to help the team.

“It’s the story of my career. I can play on the right, on the left, as a front two, I don’t mind. What I want to do is play well, help the team and score goals.”

After the game, Ancelotti gave his reasons for the switch, adding the best part about the setup and the result was the growing partnership between his two superstars.

“I think [Mbappé] is more used to playing [on the left],” Ancelotti said. “Today that was best for the team, and for him too. On the outside it’s more tiring, and Vini had returned [from international duty] on Thursday.

“Mbappé was fresher than Vinicius. He did very well with the goal, after a fantastic assist from Vini. Little by little the two are getting better.”

With right-backs Dani Carvajal and Lucas Vázquez both missing through injury, Ancelotti picked midfielder Valverde in the role, and suggested he could play there against Liverpool in the Champions League this week.

Madrid go into the game at Anfield on Wednesday in need of a win, after losing twice in four Champions League games so far.

“Valverde is a fantastic full-back,” Ancelotti said. “After Carvajal and Lucas Vazquez, he’s the best in the world. The problem is choosing where he’s best for the team. But he’s incredibly versatile. We’ll see if Lucas and [Aurelien] Tchouameni recover for Wednesday, and then we’ll see.”

Barcelona midfielder Alexia Putellas has been ruled out for around three weeks with a calf injury, the Catalan club have confirmed.

The 30-year-old has subsequently withdrawn from the Spain squad for the world champions’ upcoming friendlies against South Korea and France.

She will also miss Barça’s games against Real Betis, Hammarby and Valencia, but there is hope she will be back for the potentially key Champions League game against Manchester City on Dec. 18.

Barça were beaten by the English side when the teams met in October and will likely have to win the match at the Olympic Stadium if they want to progress to the quarterfinals as group winners.

The setback comes just as Putellas was beginning to rediscover her best form following an ACL injury which sidelined her for the majority of the 2022-23 season.

The two-time Ballon d’Or winner spent last year returning to full fitness, but she had started the campaign in stellar form under new coach Pere Romeu.

She has already scored 10 goals this season and set up five more from midfield, with last week’s strike against St. Pölten in the Champions League her 200th for the club.

Rúben Amorim said Manchester United will have to “suffer for a long period” before his methods help the club enjoy success again after a 1-1 draw at Ipswich Town denied the new head coach a debut win in his first game in charge.

Marcus Rashford’s opening goal after 81 seconds had given United a dream start at Portman Road, but Omari Hutchinson’s equaliser sealed a point for Kieran McKenna’s team and the home side would have won but for two crucial saves by United goalkeeper André Onana.

Despite having less than a week to work with his new squad on the training ground, the former Sporting CP coach deployed his favoured 3-4-2-1 formation and said it led to his players overthinking their performance.

But Amorim insisted he will stay loyal to his principles, even though he said it will lead to more suffering until his tactics bear fruit.

“I know it’s frustrating for the fans, but we are changing so much in this moment with a lot of games,” Amorim told reporters. “We are going to suffer for a long period and we will try to win games, but this will take time.

“We have to win games, but we could lose if it was not for Onana, so I think we have to understand that and think and be pragmatic that these guys had two days to train to change so much.

“It’s hard for the players in three days to cope with everything, but we forget about the new idea. I think that’s why I was brought here in the middle of the season and we try to cope with the things they are used to doing [under Erik ten Hag].

“Next year in the same stage, we will be here with the same problems or we start now, we risk a little bit, we suffer a little bit and in the next year we will be better at this point so we have to risk it a little bit.

“The [players] are thinking too much because we are changing too much with two trainings now without space to improve in training.

“But what I understood today is they are trying. They are really trying. Even in the difficult moments, I felt they were doing the things we wanted them to do.”

Amorim said that he has already told his players to stop doing what they did under the previous regime, citing the changes he has urged full-back Diogo Dalot to make.

“Some details — they used to pass the ball and go forward, even the centre-backs,” Amorim said. “Now they have to go back. These type of things. They start going forward and they have to think too much.

“Dalot used to do it, pass the ball to centre-backs, go inside, play as a midfielder, now he has to stick to this position.

“When we want to listen to a lot of you guys that Manchester United doesn’t have a structure, we will have a situation [for] you [to] see a structure and you will [see] that but it’s not fluid.

“This is like steps. We have to put in the heads, the structure. When they start thinking about the structure, they will play so much better.

“But we need time to do that and during this time we have to manage to win games. That is very important and I know that.”

United have fixtures looming in the Premier League, Europa League and Carabao Cup in the weeks ahead and Amorim said some players will be taken out of certain games to enable them to work on new methods on the training ground.

“We have to find a way,” he said. “I think the only way to do it is we have games and the guys that don’t play have trainings everybody is going to play, everybody is going to be on the bench, so they have the feeling of the game but they need to train.

“With this schedule, we need to rotate the team so we will try to use that to train, to improve the team and to win matches.

“Without the time we have to find the time, I think this is the only way some of the guys are going to play, some of the guys in the next day will work on our idea and then they will change their position.”