Gareth Bale: “Carlo Ancelotti’s man‑management was the best. Even if you didn’t play, he made you feel like his best friend. At Madrid, it’s not about being a tactical genius—it’s about managing players. He was the best coach I’ve ever had. He had the perfect balance. Zidane was similar”
by Ready_Ad_1353
10 Comments
The quality of that squad was also absurd, we had a contender for best in the world in every position of our starting eleven. Our current squad is a huge downgrade in that regard, anyone that thinks we can win with only vibes… well, they haven’t been watching us under Arbeloa I guess…
I could trust the players from that era to go out there and deliver results without a structured style of play or in depth player instructions.
Our current players lack basic footballing fundamentals and intelligence.
A midfield that can’t dictate tempo or break lines, stringing a couple of passes together coherently seems to be a major struggle for them.
An attack of primarily left-sided players who all fail to move the ball quickly enough to expose defences in transition.
That’s when we had one of the top 5 players in every single position: Ramos, Varane, Marcelo, Kross, Modric, Casemiro, Benzema, Ronaldo, Bale…
Not now that we have Ceballos, Camavinga, Ascencio, Mastantuono, and 2 divas in the LW.
I got couple news for Bale.
You are wrong. Your area, you guys’ mentality and your fundamentals+work ethic was very… very different than today’s generation’s.
Today’s squad thinks they know the best when they don’t. Has no work ethic or high discipline. And their tactical fundamentals are not strong. They are and/or were very young to have strong tactical fundamentals when they joined Madrid.
That’s why only man-management or ego-management doesn’t work anymore as we’ve seen in Ancelottis last 1.5 seasons and Arbeloa. And thats why we see Flick is the opposite.
Today’s football demands strict plans, repeated preparation and very high discipline, people! The later we acknowledge that, the more these type of spoiled players will cause tactically sound and promising coaches to get fired and the more throphyless seasons we’ll have.
It was useful when the team’s quality was superior. Currently, the squad is quite mediocre, and the level of some players is worrying; the clearest example is Jude.
I think that needs to change. That used to work when Real had serious players who played seriously like CR7, Modric, Kroos, Ramos, and more. The team needs someone like Klopp, Flick or Guardiola who would not hesitate bench anyone if they didn’t press or track back with the team, or if they played like divas instead of professional footballers.
Don’t forget that like half of those players during Zidane or Carlo’s era already went through countless of embarrassments. They couldn’t afford to have the ego to not listen to the coach. 3 Consecutive CL semis & 3 loss
That’s great when you have players like Kroos, Rondaldo, Ramos, and Bale.
When you have players like Camavinga, Vini, Asencio, and Rudiger??
Nah man, they either need better tactics or better players.
Carlo is the BEST
That team was a lot more experienced and mature. Half of our squad is prospects now. You don’t just man manage Hujisen, Carreras, camavinga Arda Gonzalo Mastantuono.
I also feel the versatility of our attack on that squad who could seamlessly switch without being in each other’s way can’t be compared to the one dimensional play of our current attackers.