Ahead of tomorrow night’s EuroLeague curtain-raiser against Olympiacos, Real Madrid’s Jaycee Carroll believes that keeping the majority of last season’s roster will help his side attempt a return to the Final Four next May.

After winning the EuroLeague title on their home floor in 2015, Real Madrid struggled through the group phase and Top 16 last term before being convincingly swept by Fenerbahce in the quarter-finals.

Carroll, along with the whole squad does not want that to be repeated this season and believes that with coach Pablo Laso retaining the services of a large group of guys from last season, they will perform better, starting Wednesday night.

“If you get a good core that plays together, that competes together that has been through the good times the bad times together, it makes them that much stronger,” Carroll said. “And having that core come back, year after year, it’s a real positive for Real Madrid.”

But despite retaining Felipe Reyes, Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Llull, Andres Nocioni as well as Carroll, Real lost heavy fan favourite Sergio Rodriguez to the NBA, which was a huge gap that veteran Dontaye Draper will look to fill. It will be a long grind for the Liga Endesa champions, especially as they will be playing the top teams around Europe in a 30-game season.

Carroll stresses that Madrid can not let their concentration slip away at any time.

“We will have to concentrate every single game,” he says. “We can’t come in and think that one of the teams is an easy win because it’s not. Maybe one of the first games of the season can determine home court advantage in the last few weeks of the season.”

 Check out the full interview with Jaycee Carroll by EuroLeague.net above