Carlo Ancelotti has the best comeback lines. He's a soft touch, they've been saying in Madrid; the club needs to be ruled with an iron fist, they add; the players need tough love, they complain. Ancelotti dealt with the issue last week in a press conference, arching his trademark left eyebrow into its most quizzical state of scepticism. 'This soft touch has won three Champions League,' he said. And it's hard to argue with that. They will argue with it, of course, at Real Madrid. Tuesday's Champions League tie against Schalke should be some blessed relief from domestic worries but then this has often been Ancelotti's way. He is after all the Champions League specialist. The debacle of Istanbul aside - when his team threw away a 3-0 lead to lose the 2005 final Liverpool – it is a competition which has been very good to him. Carlo Ancelotti characteristically raises his eyebrow during a press conference on Monday . Ancelotti's laid-back attitude means he is loved by the majority he comes into contact with . It was the trophy that saved him last summer. The muttering at the club was that he would be dismissed but, having delivered the much-anticipated 'decima' - Real Madrid's tenth European Cup after a gap of twelve years - even the powers that be at the Bernebeu didn't quite have the stomach to sack him. But the credit Ancelotti accrued for that historic win is now being called in. At the turn of the year Real Madrid were considered the most-formidable team in world football; they had a four-point lead at the top of La Liga and the so-called BBC – Bale, Benezema and Cristiano – looked unstoppable. Whatever happened to the players over the Christmas break, it wasn't good. Since then the club has been knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Atletico Madrid, which was quickly followed by the 4-0 defeat at the Vicente Calderon to their Madrid rivals. Then there was the under-par home draw to Real Villareal last weekend and Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Athletic Bilbao. Real Madrid - and Cristiano Ronaldo - have struggled for results in recent weeks . There are doubts over the suitability of Welshman Gareth Bale at the Bernabeu . Athletic Bilbao players run off to celebrate with Aritz Aduriz after scoring during the win over Real . Angel di Maria with last season's Champions League trophy - which saved Ancelotti's job . The 4-0 defeat to Atletico was the one that really stung president Florentino Perez and it elicited a presidential visit to the dressing room and promise from the team leaders that things would improve. But those captains include Sergio Ramos, currently out injured, Iker Casillas, described by one commentator as being reduced to the status of a 'celebrity' in goal, and Cristiano Ronaldo, whistled at the Bernebeu for enjoying an extravagant birthday party on the immediate aftermath of that 4-0 defeat. When the president demands more and the result is a 1-1 home draw and a defeat to Athletic, then it's the manager who gets the blame. Ancelotti is well used to this of course. He is a specialist in working for the most-demanding owners football can fathom, his CV including stints with Calisto Tanzi at Parma, who was eventually convicted of £6million fraud, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at AC Milan, Roman Abramovich at Chelsea and now Perez at Real Mardid. And he has played this part before. His final year at Chelsea was also undermined by whispers that he was too friendly with the players, that he wasn't tough enough on them, that the training was too soft. The fact that John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole loved Ancelotti – they took him to the pub on the last day of the season in 2011 when Ancelotti had found out he had been sacked – probably didn't help, given that those three players were not in the good books of the board at the time. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has made his feelings known in the Spanish capital . There is a deeper parallel between Chelsea and Real Madrid. Both had tired of the antics and histrionics of Jose Mourinho and eventually settled on Ancelotti as the polar opposite. Where Mourinho attacks at full throttle, Ancelotti can make his point with a mere raising of those expressive eyebrows; where Mourinho sees conspiracies, Ancelotti simply smiles enigmatically; and while Mourinho appears to value a state of perpetual conflict, Ancelotti prefers to be a peacemaker. But while he is seen as the antidote to Mourinho, when things go wrong, what were once seen as strengths are suddenly picked on as weakness: he is too conciliatory, too consensual, too caring. It is hard not to like Ancelotti. Not many managers at his level would have the self-depreciation to describe themselves as 'a fat boy with a bowful of Emilian tortellini.' When Juventus fans compared him to a pig, he objected on the grounds that it was insulting to pigs. After all, he had grown up on a pig farm and food is the other great passion of his life. He once took David Beckham on a 100-mile round trip to Parma to ensure he tried a favourite restaurant. Ronaldo heads home as Real Madrid comfortably swept aside Schalke in the last-16 first leg in Germany . Jose Mourinho and Ancelotti's feud was defused by the Italian in a matter of seconds . Ancelotti once took David Beckham (centre) on a 100-mile drive to show him his favourite restaurant . His playful humour is often lost in translation. But he is the man who once took up an entire team meeting at AC Milan to organise a practical joke on Mathieu Flamini, the punch line of which was unprintable and adolescent in its obscenity and yet funny nonetheless. His geniality won't save him of course. Though progressing through to the Champions League quarter-finals should be a breeze, with a 2-0 lead secured in Gelsenkirchen, there is a meeting with Barcelona at the Nou Camp on Sunday week which now looks ominous. Being pleasant is never enough. But being good can be and fortunately Ancelotti is. Significantly all the signs are that the players at Real Madrid are behind him but then he is hard man to fall out with for long. When he and Mourinho were trading barbs, when Ancelotti was at AC Milan and Chelsea and Mourinho was at Inter, the Italian eventually wearied of the whole charade. When Chelsea and Inter met in the Champions League that year Ancelotti deliberately sort out Mourinho in the tunnel beforehand to shake hands and agree a truce. 'We made a pact,' said Ancelotti. 'No more bickering, no more controversy. Six words, a handshake and in ten seconds we had an understanding.' It's hard to fight against grace. In quietly going about his business, he demonstrates that there's more than one way to be an effective football manager. The big bosses who run football clubs may be un-nerved by his manner but they cannot deny his record. And if he does need the Champions League to save him yet again this year, starting with Schalke, at least he knows the competition is like an old friend to him, always there to help him through the critical moments in his career.
Carlo Ancelotti's laid-back style offers relief from other managers . Real Madrid should progress in the Champions League quarter-finals . They face Schalke at the Bernabeu with a two-goal lead . Ancelotti is well-liked by the players but Florentino Perez wants results . CLICK HERE for all the latest Real Madrid news .