Real Madrid's Future

Benitez's playing and coaching careers both began at Real Madrid. He had been a die-hard Real Madrid fan since childhood, and even at the press conference announcing his appointment as the club's head coach, tears glistened in his eyes, allowing everyone to feel his love and loyalty toward Real Madrid.

From an emotional standpoint, he was undoubtedly the most suitable head coach for Real Madrid among the top managers of the day.

But professional football had never believed in tears, nor did it need excessive emotion. Even Benitez himself believed in that principle.

In terms of his coaching philosophy, he was the least Real Madrid-like of all Real Madrid men. Some even believed that his football was the same as Capello's.

Who was Capello?

A top-class manager who coached Real Madrid twice and won two La Liga titles in two seasons, only to be fired after winning the league on both occasions.

The reasons for Capello's two sackings were nearly identical: nobody at Real Madrid liked his football.

Real Madrid's football championed dazzling creativity full of imagination, an attacking style that flowed like quicksilver.

Benitez was undoubtedly a great tactical master, but there was no creativity or attacking football in his footballing world. There was only a rigorous, meticulous tactical framework and players' mechanical execution, no matter how hard the work.

As early as his time coaching Liverpool, everyone believed that Yang Yang was an Outlier under Benitez.

But this was clearly an unexpected product of Benitez's methods.

Before announcing Yang Yang's signing, Benitez had wanted a striker who could reliably provide more than twenty goals every season. But after Yang Yang joined, he shocked the entire world from his second season onward, forcing Benitez to build the team's attack around him.

From twenty-five goals to thirty-four, and then forty-four