Following the catastrophic ACL injury suffered by Thibaut Courtois during practise on Thursday, Carlo Ancelotti has confidence in backup goalie Andriy Lunin.
Yet, the Italian tactician has confirmed that Real Madrid plan to make a move for another shot-stopper ahead of a challenging 2023/24 campaign.
“Emotionally yesterday was not a good day,” Ancelotti told the press conference prior Real Madrid’s game against Athletic Club on Saturday.
“These things usually happen in footballl and now we have to hope that Courtois can recover soon and show all [our] confidence to Lunin, who is a great goalkeeper.
“He did well during the preseason and we have total confidence in him. He is a talent and what he lacks is what everyone lacks. The experience he is gaining day by day.
“We are very sad, but this can happen. We have a very large squad to solve these problems that can happen.
“We have time until the 31st [of August]. Behind Lunin, the goalkeepers have potential, but they are young. We will think about it. Fran is 17 years old. If we sign [a goalkeeper] it will be because of the number [of goalkeepers we have].
“We have total confidence in Lunin and the next few days we will see if we add one more goalkeeper to the squad.”
Following Karim Benzema’s departure, Real Madrid have not made a move for a world-class striker, but Ancelotti has confidence in his attackers.
“In the preseason we have scored a lot of goals and [created many] chances,” Ancelotti noted.
“The problem has been in defence. We have lacked accuracy, the striker is still not fresh in the summer, but up front we are very good, we have options. Joselu is very good in the box and Brahim [Diaz] between the lines can provide solutions”.
The Real Madrid coach went on to express his belief that the current roster boasts several players who can score goals including Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes.
“[Rodrygo and Vinicius] have to continue their evolution,” Ancelotti added.
“I don’t how many goals they need to score. I think we have a team with many options because there are several who can provide goals such as Vini, [Jude] Bellingham, Rodrygo, [Toni] Kroos… We have a lot of options to score goals.”
