TA: Although some people in the Real Madrid locker room are dissatisfied with Alonso, as long as the results are good, there will be no big problem.

October 31st According to TheAthletic, the relationship between Alonso and some Real Madrid players has become increasingly tense. Many first-team players are dissatisfied with his management style and the major reforms he has implemented since taking office in June.

According to multiple sources close to Real Madrid players, there is currently a sense of frustration in the locker room. Many senior players feel disrespected and dissatisfied. They believe that Alonso is more distant than former coach Ancelotti. The most obvious example is Alonso and Vinicius. In the El Clasico against Barcelona last week, Vinicius publicly expressed his disappointment when he was substituted. When he issued an apology statement on social media afterwards, he deliberately did not mention coach Alonso. However, when Vinicius apologized to his teammates in training, Alonso was also present.

TA also learned that many long-term Real Madrid players are also dissatisfied with the way Alonso treats them, and are even more frustrated with their position (or absence) in Alonso's tactical system, although there are also some players in the same position in the team who are very satisfied with the current situation. For Alonso, this situation may be worrying at the moment. Real Madrid's history shows that the coach and his tactical philosophy are never the most important. Real Madrid's management, especially the club's president, has always played a key role in the team's sporting decisions, especially when it comes to transfer transactions.

The current Real Madrid president Florentino continues this tradition. The club's task is to sign the best players in the world and decide which existing players to sell and when. The coach's task is to build the lineup he gets into a team that can win trophies. If this goal cannot be achieved quickly, the club will find someone else to take over the task. The eight Champions League trophies Real Madrid has won this century were all led by coaches who focused more on personnel management than tactical theory: Del Bosque twice, Zidane and Ancelotti three times each. Coaches who pay attention to detail and micromanage players on and off the field often have difficulty gaining locker room buy-in and don't last long.

To succeed in coaching in an environment like Real Madrid requires a combination of humility and confidence, as well as a certain agility. Although Ancelotti and Zidane have their own tactical concepts, they are also pragmatic and will formulate game plans based on the characteristics of the team. Both are also able to establish deep connections with the big-name stars in the team, know how to communicate with these players, and bring out the best in them. They believe that the players can find solutions to problems themselves during the game. Whether in public or private, they can carefully control the communication between the locker room and the senior management.

When Zidane was the coach of Real Madrid, he skillfully dealt with Ronaldo's desire to play in every game and convinced him to take appropriate rest during the season to ensure that he remained in top condition in the most important games. In the end, the two worked together to achieve three consecutive Champions League titles from 2016 to 2018. Seven years ago, when the 18-year-old Vinicius first joined Real Madrid, Ancelotti often communicated with him, helped him build confidence and guided his development, and later helped Real Madrid win the Champions League in 2022 and 2024.

Neither Ancelotti nor Zidane are popular with everyone in the locker room. Zidane's relationship with Bale, James Rodriguez and other stars was very tense, and he was not close with Vinicius. When Ancelotti took charge of Real Madrid for the second time, he successively gave up Bell, Isco, Marcelo and Hazard. Key to these decisions is their poor performance in competition or a decline in training form. Zidane and Ancelotti are not too concerned with how they feel if they are deemed no longer important to the team's success.

Both coaches do not impose standards from the top down but set examples through senior players. In the past decade, the midfield partnership of Modric and Kroos has been the team's daily model. However, Kroos retired in the summer of 2024, Modric (and another veteran Vazquez) also left the team this summer, and the club is deeply concerned about the team's lack of experienced leaders. At the end of last season, Ancelotti was disappointed with some stars losing focus and failing to contribute to the team's success. Alonso was aware of this when he took over the team, which is one of the reasons why he tried to strengthen the team's discipline.

Florentino has always advocated not pampering players or giving too much free space. When players are dissatisfied, he usually supports the coach. Therefore, despite some dissatisfaction in the locker room, winning El Clasico was enough for Real Madrid's top brass to ignore these issues. As long as the current momentum continues, Alonso's arrogant and distant attitude towards the players will not worry the club management too much. But if results start to decline, even if Florentino supports it, Alonso will be under pressure. This is the reality of coaching at Real Madrid.