Analyzing teamwork and leadership in Real Madrid (2021-2022)

Real Madrid fans are certainly happy this season. Their beloved club has won the La Liga trophy the 35th time, four games before the end of the season. RM has also advanced to the Champions League Final which will be held on 29 May 2022. As the most competitive football league in the world, Champions League (UCL) offers the biggest challenge to top football clubs in Europe. During the knockout stage in this season (2011-2022), RM beat Paris Saint-Germain, champion of Ligue 1, Chelsea, defending champion of Champions League, and Manchester City, champion of the Premier League. What’s more astonishing is that RM knocked all these strongest clubs out with comebacks. During the two-legs knock-out rounds in each of the matchup, RM had been trailing her rivals at some point of the game by as much as two goals. Miraculously, RM was able to make a comeback again and again and scored jaw-dropping goals. Many people attributed the wonderful comebacks to the fantastic performance of Karim Benzema, who scored 44 goals in 44 appearances so far, an all-time high in his career, and the deadly finish from Rodrygo Goes, who rescued RM from elimination twice with his timely goals as a “super sub”. Other honorable mention included Vinicius Junior, who also achieved his all-time high stats in the club this season, Camavinga who brought the needed energy in the midfield, as well as the aged yet solid Modric, Kroos and Casemiro trio.

While it is easy to attribute the club’s success to individual’s superb performance, I want to analyze with another angle. As a professional in team performance and leadership, I have studied what makes a team tick. Football is a team sport – the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Having star players in the team doesn’t guarantee trophies. Teamwork and leadership are two huge factors that make or break a team’s performance. In this article I attempt to analyze RM’s success from the angle of team development and leadership. No technical analysis will be provided.

1. Team success goes before individual glory

One of the attributes of high performing team is that team goals always precede individual agendas. However, it is not unusual to see that star players often put their own agendas ahead of that of the team. Some big-name players may even overshadow their coach and create conflicts in the team – big hurdle to optimal team performance. In the world of professional football, one of the “personal agenda” for players is playing time. Players want as much playing time as possible because without enough of it, they can’t show off their impact to the team, hence undermine their negotiation power for contract renewal or attract new buyers. One would expect that the fight for playing time is even more complicated at RM because their world class players have won multiple trophies including UCL titles in the eras of Zidane and before. However, we hardly heard any news about RM players complained about their playing time. Coach Carlo Ancelotti said that he had no problems benching any players.

“Here there are players who have won four UCL titles, I tell them, you’re benched today and they say ‘no problem mister’.”[1]

When players came off the bench they gave their very best on the pitch. Rodrygo, Nacho, Ceballos, Vallejo, Vazquez and other bench players have been giving 100% effort whenever on the pitch. No complaint. With the full support from his players, Ancelotti was able to put the team benefit ahead of those of players.

Another incident can be seen in the second leg of the semi-final V.S. Manchester City. Rodrygo scored two goals in stoppage time and singlehandedly pulled RM from being knock-out. When Benzema secured a penalty during the extra time, he offered the penalty to Rodrygo for completing his hattrick. Scoring a hattrick in UCL semi-final and sending his club straight to the Final would certainly give the 21 years old godlike aura. However, Rodrygo refused taking the penalty, knowing that Benzema should be the best person to take it instead. During an interview, Rodrygo said,

“Benzema asked me if I wanted to take the penalty for the hattrick. But I know he always trains for it and with the season he's having, the least I could do is say 'no Karim, you should take it.’ And now we're in the final.”[2]

This incident told us something about Benzema and Rodrygo. For Benzema, we can see that he was generous to help the next generation of the star and he was absolutely confident in Rodrygo’s ability to score at high stake moment. For Rodrygo, he knew what was more important for the club – score the penalty and advance to the final instead of personal hattrick glory. In Real Madrid, team benefits go before individual agendas.

2. Effective Leadership by Ancelotti

Leadership and team performance go hand in hand. It’s almost possible to find high performing teams with bad leaders. In RM, coach Carlo Ancelotti is the leader, one heck of a leader. One attribute of effective leadership is the ability to give credit to the team members when successful and take the blame during failures. On 20 March 2022, RM suffered one of the biggest losses in El Clasico, 0-4 defeat at home to her old-time rival Barcelona. Prior to that game, Real Madrid has been winning over Barcelona in previous five consecutive games. Let’s look at Ancelotti’s reaction after the embarrassing defeat. During the post-game press conference, the Italian said:[3]

“The [team] formation wasn’t good and didn’t work. I didn’t come up with a good enough scheme. It’s no problem for me to take responsibility. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong. I got it wrong.”

When asked whether the loss was because of the absence of the star striker Karim Benzema, Ancelotti didn’t use that as an excuse. “We didn’t lose because Karim wasn’t available”. When asked whether the rival striker, Aubameyang, should receive a red card during a rough tackle on his player, he refused to comment. “I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to make excuses. I set us up badly for the game”.

Ancelotti took the blame of the defeat. He didn’t try to dodge or shirk the responsibility to the referee or players, as many coaches did. He admitted that his tactic was wrong, plain and simple. He protected his players.

At the same time, Ancelotti didn’t get drown on occasional setback. He channeled people’s attention to the future and move on.

“We know how important a match against Barcelona is for the fans, so we feel low. We’re sorry. But we have to continue and train well over these next two weeks, staying calm and maintaining balance. We have time to digest this loss. We still have nine points more than the second-placed team.”

On the other hand, when things are going positive, great leaders know how to credit the team. After a hard-fought win over Elche in extra time in Round of 16 of Copa del Rey on 21 Jan 2022, the Italian coach credited the glory to the players.[4]

“I’m very happy… This is a team with a lot of humility, character, strength. They never give up.”

“This is the best thing about this game. Then you can talk about the difficulty, that the game was very complicated, but I highlight the character of this team and these players.”

When things go rough, go inward – take the blame to self. When the team is winning, go outward – credit the success to the team. That’s leadership.

3. Relationship with players

All management is people management, as the saying goes. It doesn’t get any more challenging than managing a team of world class players at the most esteemed club of the world. Millions of fans are watching over you, social media are talking about you, and the President of the club is ruthlessly demanding still more result. The stakes are extremely high. Counterintuitively, the best thing the coach can do on the most challenging task is the most basic one – maintain a healthy relationship with the players.

I mentioned earlier that Ancelotti was able to bench champion players without any complaints from the players. It is a sign of his positive relationship with the players, not only in RM but beyond. In fact, you rarely heard any drama stories between Ancelotti and his players in the clubs that he coached. How did he win the trust from his players? For one, he protected his players in difficult times and credited the glory during success. He never complained about his players publicly. Would you be fighting from the bottom of your heart if you know that a subpar performance will put you on the table for public critique? In a press conference, Ancelotti was asked which player has disappointed and surprised him in this season, he answered,[5]

“I'm not disappointed with anybody, they have all worked hard, showed discipline and professionalism. I've been surprised by the lads I didn't know so well, like Valverde, Rodrygo and Camavinga.”

In another interview, Ancelotti said that modern football has changed a lot since the days he started coaching in the mid-1990s, and what he has to change and NOT changed.[6]

“So I’ve had to be ready to change my style and my idea of football, because the rules have changed. It’s a completely different sport. But what hasn’t changed is my relationship with the players. That’s the same.

“The important thing is the relationships you have with other people. I’m with my players every day – actually, it’s not right to call them my players. I’m with my friends every day. Because there’s the player and then there’s the person.

“Players are people playing football. When you ask most of them who they are they’ll say that they’re a player. But no, they’re men who play football. And sometimes I tell them that I put the player on the bench, not the man. If you’re a serious professional who respects the people they work with you’ll always come out top.”

He sees the players as persons, not players. When you treat your team members as persons or friends, you know that they are all unique individuals with personalities and stories. You have to spend time talking, listening, and understanding them. That’s how you develop relationship with team members. If you see them only as players, they are interchangeable pawns and tools. The essence of management is people management. The best way to manage people is to treat people as “people”, not colleagues or players.

Leadership Myths

I have outlined three factors that contributed to RM’s success in this season. As you can see, they are all, directly and indirectly, derived from Ancelotti’s leadership. Speaking about leadership, it’s worth discussing some common myths that people have towards it.

There’s a myth that great leaders are born. Some people are born leadership materials and are better suited for leadership positions. However, modern management research and studies have proven otherwise. Although some are indeed blessed with leadership talents, nearly anyone can learn to be great leaders. Take drawing as an example. Although some are born with better artistic sense and therefore can naturally draw pretty nicely, it doesn’t mean those who aren’t cannot learn to be a drawer. Leadership, as well as drawing, can be learned with proper methods and resources. We can always get better at it.

Another common myth about leadership is that great leaders must be charismatic. They must be eloquent speakers, charming and animated. However, one can easily find counterexamples of this myth, such as Carlo Ancelotti who is nowhere near as charismatic as Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and Diego Simeone. Introverts can also be great leaders, and they often deliver better results than extroverted leaders.[7]

To this date, Carlo Ancelotti is the first coach to win national championships in all five major leagues in Europe. He is also the record holder of reaching the UCL final most times as a coach, with five times in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014 and 2022.

Conclusion

There is no random success in the world. If a team is working well, there must be reasons behind that are worth analyzing and learning from. My intent is to dissect RM’s success in this season through the lens of teamwork and leadership and draw insights from it. At the time of writing there are only 10 days from the UCL Final where RM will face Liverpool, a rematch of the final in 2018. As a RM fan, I certainly wish to see the history repeats itself.

[1] https://www.samaaenglish.tv/sports/football/2022/05/ancelotti-reveals-what-made-real-madrids-season-easy/ [2] https://firstsportz.com/football-news-rodrygo-reveals-the-selfless-side-of-karim-benzema-says-the-real-madrid-star-asked-him-to-take-the-match-winning-penalty-to-complete-his-hat-trick-against-manchester-city/ [3] https://www.managingmadrid.com/2022/3/20/22988185/ancelotti-press-conference-clasico-barcelona [4] https://www.football-espana.net/2022/01/20/carlo-ancelotti-praises-the-character-of-his-real-madrid-players-after-their-comeback-win-over-elche [5] https://www.realmadrid.com/en/news/2022/05/14/ancelotti-were-going-to-do-a-good-job-so-were-ready-for-the-final [6] https://www.football-espana.net/2022/05/11/carlo-ancelotti-explains-the-secret-to-his-famed-man-management-ability [7] https://quietrev.com/susan-cain-talks-about-work-and-leadership/