What separates the great players from the best? Details. See how Davide Ancelotti came up with the goal for Benzema

There are dozens of fantastic footballers running around the world. But the truly great ones are few and far between. Football-wise, players from both categories may be similar, but the difference is in the head and the details. Karim Benzema, working with assistant coach David Ancelotti, showed one such example.

Benzema is playing in the form of his life this season. He’s already racked up 18 goals and 8 assists for Real Madrid and it’s only December, adding 6 goals in the France jersey in the fall. Ranked fourth in the Ballon d’Or poll, many believe he could have been even higher.

He’s always been a great striker, he’s just been a bit overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo. He woke up a bit after his departure, but he has absolutely exploded this season. What is it? The answer may lie on the Real Madrid bench.

For Carlo Ancelotti has taken over the White Ballet, bringing his son Davide Ancelotti with him as assistant. However, it’s definitely not about nepotism to offer his son a warm seat, Davide is one of the great professionals and at 31 years old he has already had engagements at Real Madrid, PSG or Bayern Munich.

Ancelotti senior even leaves his son in charge of training, so Davide has the main say at the Valdebebas training centre. And he is known to be very attentive to details.

During the warm-up for this weekend’s derby against Atlético Madrid, Davide watched the French marksman for a while and then came up with one piece of advice.

He noticed that Atlético’s defence stays very deep in the centres. So he advised Benzema to make a deceptive move into the box and stay off the rebound on the whitewash.

And guess how the first goal of the game came about. Vinicius was preparing the ball for a centre on the right, Benzema signalled a move into the box and made a slight flick. The Brazilian’s centre found the boot of the Real striker, who sent his team into the lead from a volley.

(See the video for Ancelotti’s conversation with Benzema at 0:20, and the goal scored in the match at the end of the video.)

It’s the details, though, that ultimately make a huge difference. If Benzema had run headlong into the whitewash, he probably wouldn’t have had much of a chance against Atlético’s three defenders. Los Blancos wouldn’t have led that way, and God knows how the game would have turned out.

Source: Twitter | Madrid Zone